Teddy Lupin and the Resurrection Stone
by AshNox
Summary: Teddy Lupin's first year at Hogwarts. The first generation of 'war babies' from both sides arrive at Hogwarts. Old wrongs are hard to forgive and forget and no one wants to make the same old mistakes.
1. If Remus was like Teddy

**Ch.1**

3rd September, 2009.

Teddy Lupin stood in the doorway of the same dorm room that his father had once slept in for six consecutive years. It was a strange though. As far as Teddy knew that was the longest his father had ever stayed anywhere. He was a tricky man, even in death, to track down.

As soon as the other occupants of the room had left for breakfast, on this first morning at Hogwarts, Teddy had lay down on the floor and slid himself beneath each of the five beds, looking for something, for anything, that his father might have carved onto the hidden surface.

If Remus was anything like his son, he would have left something, just anything, to prove that he had once been here. '_If' _Remus was like Teddy. What a big 'if' that was.

Teddy had chosen his bed when they had been taken to the dormitory the previous evening. It was a big room, large enough to fit five beds, five nightstands, and floor room for five trunks. There was no access to the bathrooms. But that was the sort of old-fashioned thing Teddy expected from Hogwarts, which had been built forever ago.

A good sized window with a window seat created by the thick wall, stood directly opposite the rooms only doorway. The old walls, that had once been white, were now a warm cream and aside from the fresh white sheets, every piece of cloth in the room was red or gold. Teddy did not feel very Gryffindor.

He had been lying on the floor, studying the bed bases for hidden cryptic messages that a long dead father might have left for his son to discover. He had not found anything immediately obvious amongst the random graffiti.

His favorite discovery, so far, was that 'James Potter' had once lurrved 'Lily Evans' (for eva). That was very funny because 'James Potter' was Harry and Ginny's four year old son. It was also Harry's dad's name.

Like Teddy, Harry had been orphaned in baby-hood and had never known his parents. So 'James Potter, the first' didn't seem much like a real person. Just part of the whole 'How Harry Potter defeated Voldemort' legend. It was almost as funny to imagine him carving his love for a girl into the bottom of his bed, as it was to imagine a four year old doing it.

Another interesting secret the under bed search had revealed was about the four-poster beneath the window, now occupied by Harry Dolohov. It looked from every other angle to be identical to the other four beds. But if you lay underneath it, there was only a tiny smattering of graffiti, proving it was a later addition to the room. Teddy therefore ruled it out as being his dad's bed.

When Teddy had chosen _his _bed, Harry Dolohov had been at his side, hanging back and letting the others choose first. The two beds on the left hand side of the room, had already been taken by a massive blond haired boy, and a red head that Teddy had honestly thought was a girl, until he'd seen him in the boys' dorm.

Harry Dolohov had waited for Teddy to choose, which had made him dither. He'd chosen the bed closest to the window, because he thought his dad might have liked to look out and see what the moon was doing at any given time. Teddy Lupin's dad had been a werewolf, but a non-evil one, as unlikely as that seemed. So Teddy had decided his dad might have wanted to keep an eye on the moon, and had chosen the bed on the right, closest to the window. The bed beside him was still empty, and Teddy was debating whether to swap.

There was a lot to be said for having the bed by the door. He would be able to go to the bathroom at night without bothering anyone. Or he could slip out to do exciting sneaking around and playing pranks at night. Possibly. Mostly it would just be better for the bathroom. And it would mean he had a bit of personal space between him and the rest of the boys. It was very weird to share a room with four other eleven year old boys.

He didn't swap. This bed, he thought, might be his dads. The wood was damaged on this bed, chipped away by something as if little (but obviously very strong) fingernails hand nipped off bits of the varnish and wood. It wasn't exactly what Teddy imagined werewolves would do, but who knew?

His grandmother had told him to make sure he ate. 'Bella didn't eat'. That was what she always said, when Teddy didn't. Being compared to Bellatrix Lestrange would probably have made anyone eat.

Teddy had a picture of Bellatrix. He actually had a picture of almost every member of his family. It mattered a lot to him. Apart from him and his grandmother everyone else was dead. Most of them had killed each other in the second wizarding war.

Bellatrix Lestrange. He'd opened his trunk and summoned the tattered leather satchel with his wand. He put Bellatrix's picture on his red bedspread, looking at her really _very beautiful _face.

Teddy didn't have a single picture of his own mum, as a mum. There were pictures of her, as a child growing up, but they were all different. He could have got the same idea of what she was like from cutting all the faces from a random magazine. No two were even the same.

That was what being a metamorohmagus meant. It was like being a Boggart, without the evil. No one knew what you really looked like. Teddy imagined that his mum had looked like Bellatrix, without the evil.

Bellatrix looked like his grandmother in the photo, only young and beautiful. The photo blinked at him, sleepily, dreamily. Dreaming evil things, probably, but you couldn't tell just from looking.

He got out his picture of James Potter as well. James Potter the first, Harry's dad.

This was a photo of James at Hogwarts, winning the Quidditch House Cup, which Teddy intended to do himself, as soon as possible.

James Potter had been a chaser, but he was also the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain. His best friend, Sirius Black was one of the teams Beaters, and their photo was alive with movement as they flung the gold trophy about. Harry's mother jumped into the photo to fling her arms around James for what looked like a face crash of a kiss, and Teddy's father and their treacherous friend Peter Pettigrew both jumped in to embrace Sirius and James, respectively, before the picture reverted to its starting image, and began to play from the beginning again.

Sirius Black was the epitome of cool. He had been imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, escaped the unbreachable walls of Azkaban, owned a flying motorbike, and could transform at will into an enormous Grim-like monster dog. All this made him, without doubt, the coolest wizard of all time.

Sirius Black was Teddy's first cousin, twice removed. He too looked shockingly like Bellatrix, Andromeda and the rest of their family. The Blacks all looked like each other. Ginny said it was because they 'liked each other too much', with a nudge and a wink that would make Harry give her his 'not in front of the children' look. Andromeda didn't talk about it, at all. Her family had all killed each other. How could you talk, after that?

Teddy, like his mother before him, would be hard pressed to say what he did _actually_ look like. Sometimes he gave himself bubble gum pink hair, because his mum was famous for it. But he suspected she'd just made if that colour to get his dad's attention. His dad had had brown hair that was, apparently, already going grey when he'd died, in his thirties. Teddy did that sometimes, but he didn't think he looked a lot like his dad.

It was hard to see his dad's in the Quidditch Cup photo, because of all the hugging. But he'd looked pale, scarred and ill. It was a shame he hadn't been on the team. Teddy intended to be, as soon as he was old enough.

Teddy imagined that beneath it all he _did _look like Sirius Black, who was the only male relative he had a picture of (aside from the two photos of Sirius with his baby brother, who also had to count as male, although both children had been wearing what looked like green velvet frocks).

He would like to look like Sirius and he figured it slightly stood to reason, as all the Black's looked like each other in the face. Almost all of them had Black hair, as well. Although his Aunt Cissy and her son were both white blond. Ginny had told him that was a weird genetic mutation and a good example of the Black's 'getting what they deserved'. Teddy had been offended, on behalf of his family and on behalf of genetic mutants everywhere.

Apparently he'd been born with black hair and pale skin and his parents had both said he was tremendously beautiful. This was a good description of most of the Blacks. His 'Black' look _was_ his default, when no one was judging or affecting him. It suited his height, his bones structure, and the way he loped when he walked. He closed his eyes and changed back to it now, feeling the tiny alterations dropping away from his body.

Glancing into a cloudy mirror that hung next to the big blond boys bed, Teddy smiled, pleased. He had been walking round with blue hair all the previous day, which was his standard look for when he wanted to appear cool. It also helped avoid getting lost in the crowd. He had already heard two older kids refer to him as 'the kid with blue hair' and a pretty Prefect called Calypso Bones had asked if he knew who'd hexed him, and offered to perform a reversal.

Blue haired Teddy was cool. Blue hair said, I'm a metamorphmagus and I know it. And I'm proud of it. Which he was. His grandmother had taught him to be bloody proud of being a metamorphmagus. Just like she'd warned him never ever to be proud of being descended from the Ancient and Ignoble House of Black. But Teddy was proud of both.

Hearing the other students returning from breakfast Teddy closed his eyes again and pulled the image of blue haired over-confidence back around him. He stuffed the photos into the battered leather satchel and headed to his first class.


	2. Professor Malfoy

**Ch.2**

The troll-sized blond lad, who slept by the mirror, was called Gabriel Goyle. Ha! And Teddy thought he had been cursed with a bad name! He looked, Teddy thought, like a lion. His hair was all golden and curly, his skin was tanned, and he even had golden eyes. He was massive as well. Even taller than Teddy, and unlike Teddy who was already quite lanky, he was nearly as wide as he was tall. He talked, not at all, only grunted. But he seemed friendly enough.

Teddy sat next to him at the Gryffindor table at lunch time, with Harry Dolohov on his right. Emanuel Parkinson, dark haired and glare-y, and Mark Jones, Muggleborn and fascinating, sat opposite. He was pleased to have learnt all their names.

Mark the Muggle was the red-head that looked like a girl. He had a mop of longish hair that curled on his neck and fell in his eyes, and very pink lips making him look like he was wearing lipstick. He swore a lot of Muggle swearwords and talked about football, which they all pretended to know a lot about.

Emanuel Parkinson sulked, and looked longingly at the Slytherin table. He had barely been around, but was the apparent owner of the door-side bed, that had been empty next to Teddy's.

Harry Dolohov, who had followed Teddy everywhere and sat next to him in their first two classes, flashed Teddy a couple of smirks, as Teddy did his best to sound like he understood what the off-side rule was.

After lunch they had Transfiguration with Professor Malfoy. Professor Malfoy was Andromeda's nephew. He was tall and slightly washed out looking. Teddy liked him. He had brought Teddy his Firebolt Phantom, and taught him to fly it. Between them, Harry and Draco (who hated each other with a passion) had brought Teddy five brooms over the last three year.

Draco's latest broom had come a while ago and Teddy feared Harry had decided he was not going to keep trying to out-buy brooms with Draco anymore. Sadly.

Draco Malfoy was white blond, like his mother, Teddy had heard Cissy complaining to his grandmother that the older girls often slipped love-letters and worse into his robes. Teddy could not see why. He looked like a miserable git, and he was ancient. The only time he'd ever seemed really happy was when he was teaching Teddy to play Quidditch, or when he was with his baby, Scorpius.

He didn't smile as Teddy trooped into the class with his new friends. Harry Dolohov was still sticking to him like glue. Muggle Mark was still talking about football, and giggled nervously under Draco's glare. Emmanuel Parkinson left them as soon as they reached the class, going to sit with the Slytherins who were gathering at the front of the class.

Teddy took a seat in the middle of the room, and scanned the desk for any Remus Lupin related graffiti. Harry Dolohov immediately took the seat beside him. Lion-like Gabriel settled on his other side.

Muggle Mark sat next to Dolohov, whispering until he was hit in the face by Draco's black board duster. The entire class was silent. Teddy stared at Draco in open mouth shock, his hair changing from blue to a blanched white, which was not dis-similar to the professor's own.

"You might want to take that nosebleed to Madame Pomfrey." Draco drawled, with an actual smile. Teddy finally snapped his mouth closed and exchanging a look of utter horror with Harry Dolohov, before they both stared fixedly at their books.

Draco cleared his throat in the silence, informed them all that they must refer to him as Professor Malfoy, that he wasn't going to tolerate any inappropriate behavior, and that he expected them to work, very hard. He then ordered them to write a half foot of parchment explaining who they were and what their current abilities relating to transfiguration were. Teddy cast his teacher an uneasy look as he handed over the parchment, his hair still ghost white. Draco cast silver eyes down on him, winked, and turned with a sneer to the other students.

Teddy, Harry and Gabriel dashed across the school to the hospital wing. A fierce matron waved her wand angrily at them as they ran into the room, sending them out to knock, wipe their feet and wait for her to admit them. The bell for the next lesson went as they walked, meekly, to Muggle Marks bedside.

"She's dreadfully pale." The Matron said tutting as she removed the compress from Mark's nose and tapped at a purple bruise with her wand. "Shouldn't be allowed." Making another cross noise in her throat she gave them five minutes, and swept into her office.

"She thinks you're a girl!" Gabriel sniggered, pointing at Mark with a chubby hand.

"She think's you're a tit." Mark snapped. "That's child abuse, that is. He'd be fired from a Muggle school for throwing a bloody board brush at a kid. That's Victorian, that is."

"That's my uncle." Teddy told him. "Sort of. My grandmother adopted me. He's her nephew. My first cousin once removed. Not a proper uncle."

"Not a proper teacher either!" Muggle Mark pointed out. "He's a nutter. I never did anything."

"You were talking." Harry Dolohov told him. "Muggle schools are maybe very lax."

"_Oh My God_!" Muggle Mark dropped his cold compress. "He made your blue hair go white!"

"Nah, I made it change." He grinned, scrunching up his face and changing it again to that bubblegum pink.

"_Wow!_" All three boys breathed in unison.

"You're a Metamorphmagus." Harry exclaimed. "Or you're a NEWT level at Transfig, already."

"I inherited it from my mum." Teddy told them. "Look. I can do Gabriel."

He focused on Gabriel's big gold lion's face and scrunching his own, relaxing into it.

"Sweet Merlin, that's cool!" Harry exclaimed.

"That is the scariest thing I have ever seen." Mark whispered.

"I don't look like that." Gabriel growled, peering at him, uneasily.

"You are never going to get into trouble in your entire life!" Harry Dolohov said, excitedly. "You can just 'be' someone else. That is so cool, I hate you!"

"Do Harry." Gabriel suggested. "Do Muggle Mark."

"Hey! Don't call me _that_!" Mark exclaimed, recovering from the shock of seeing Teddy change into Gabriel. "I'm not a Muggle, I'm a wizard."

"My Godfather is Muggle born." Teddy assured him. "It's really cool. Harry doesn't have a clue what it's like to actually be a Muggle, because he was pretty much locked in his house, mostly in a cupboard, until he was old enough to escape to our world and defeat Voldemort. That's how I know about football." He added, flashing Harry Dolohov a sheepish grin.

Harry didn't return it; instead he cleared his throat nervously. "I'm named after your Godfather, Teddy." He said, glancing at the floor. "I'm named after Harry Potter."

"Well, that is mental." Mark said, grudgingly. "You're named after Teddy's Godfather? And you end up in the same dorm. What are the odds?"

"Quite high." Teddy pointed out. "Loads of people named their children after Harry. So, in my head I always call you Harry Dolohov." He added, to Harry Dolohov, who grinned, nervously.

"Harry Dolohov, Mark Muggle. Gabriel Goyle, cause your name is daft enough, mate. Haven't got a name for Misery yet."

"Emmanuel? Isn't that stupid enough?" Harry Dolohov asked.

"And I just think of you as that Blue haired freak." Mark told him, recovering.

"I thought you were a girl!" Gabriel crowed with a broad grin. "So does that matron!"

"Yes. We all know. Isn't it hil-arious?" Mark snapped. "Maybe Muggle Mark isn't that bad a nickname. Can we call you Pink-haired Gay-boy?"

Teddy yawned at him and turned his hair grass green and suitably spiky. "You changed the style as well!" Mark exclaimed. "That is beyond freaky."

"He can do his face as well, can't you?" Harry Dolohov added. "If you're a proper Metamorphmagus."

"Course I can." He grinned, making his green hair grow longer and longer, and his face pepper with more freckles than Marks.

"So what do you really look like?" Mark interrupted him. Teddy opened matching grass green eyes, looking at the three expectant faces. "...Like with your blue hair." He added, when Teddy didn't answer. "Is that, like, what you _really_ look like, when you're not disguising yourself?"

"No. I just look like the rest of my family." He shrugged. "But where's the fun in that?"

They arrived ten minutes late to potions. Teddy again sporting blue hair and Muggle Mark an impressive bruise. The Potions' professor gestured them to their seats and continued her speech on the requirements of a good Potions class, before coming over to them. She was a young witch with beautiful sparkling robes that glittered and swirled like the Potions she had bottled around the dark classroom.

"Names boys." She said, stopping by them.

"Lupin, Teddy." Teddy said. Professor Patel looked at him thoughtfully, before moving on to 'Dolohov, Harry. Evans, Mark and Goyle, Gabriel.

"Detention. This evening." She told them. "For tardiness. I expect my pupils to arrive on time. Lupin, you can work here with Evans. Dolohov and Goyle go over there." And she sent them off to the back of the class.

"Sorry." Mark mouthed, peering into the heavy cauldron. "This is cool, isn't it?"

"No talking." Teddy mouthed at him. "Remember?" Mark snickered and pretended to zip his mouth closed.


	3. History

**Ch.3**

"Are you related to Antonin Dolohov?" Muggle Mark asked, sharply. He was on his bed, reading Harry Potter and the Second Wizarding War.

Harry Dolohov had been playing Wizarding Snap with Teddy in the middle of the dorm. The sharpness of the question, along with the inevitable answer had caused him to jerk his hand upwards and the entire pack had just exploded in their faces.

Fanning the cloud of smoke away Harry stood up. Mark stared at him, looking slightly queasy, and then back down at a photograph in his book, comparing his dorm mates face to that of the Death Eater's Azkaban mug shot. Harry wet his lips, as if he was going to say something, but in fact he said nothing at all.

"What does it matter?" Teddy asked, for him. Scrapping what remained of the burnt cards into a pile, he too stood up, next to his friend.

"Quite a lot, I think." Muggle Mark assured him. His eyes again moving over Harry Dolohov's dark hair and eyes, his pale skin and narrow features. "Antonin Dolohov was an Inner Circle Death Eater. He murdered and tortured loads of people. Wizards, Witches and Muggles."

"I know." Teddy nodded. "So?"

"So?" Mark demanded. "I thought you were the good guys! I'm Muggle born! You're a Death Eater!"

"I am _not _a Death Eater." Harry said, glancing slightly frantically at the dormitory door.

"You're a Dolohov." Mark pointed out. "You look like him too!" He added, swinging the book round to reveal the Death Eater's twisted leering face. There was indeed a distinct family likeness.

"It's just a name." Gabriel said, uneasily.

"Am I going to find Goyles' in here as well?" Mark asked, brandishing the book. "And Lupins'?"

"You're going to find my dad." Gabriel nodded. "Gregory Goyle. He's been in Azkaban since he was seventeen. I've never met him." And with that he turned back to studying the parchment on which he was trying to do his homework.

"And you?" Mark asked, turning suspiciously to Teddy.

"My father was a hero." Teddy stated. "He died in the Battle of Hogwarts, when I was a baby. Both my parents fought against Lord Voldemort. My mum was an Aurora."

"A what?" Mark asked, suspiciously.

"Like a Policeman." Teddy told him.

"No. More like an elite brotherhood of warrior wizards." Harry said. "They work for the Ministry."

"Police aren't the Muggle equivalent?" Teddy asked, surprised. Harry shrugged.

"Don't think so." He said.

"_So?_" Mark interrupted. "So what? Your family are bad guys but you're not?"

"Yes." Harry said. "I guess... No." He added, grimacing at the corner of the room. "Antonin Dolohov is my dad. He'll die in Azkaban for fighting against The Ministry. I've never met him and I think he's been driven insane. He certainly wasn't a hero, but my mother told me no one is totally good or totally evil. And I believe that. I doubt there was anyone fighting on either side braver than him."

"You freak." Mark assured him, slightly shakily. "I've got a list here of people he's known to have tortured and murdered. Do you need me to read it out to you?"

"No." Harry assured him. "He's in Azkaban, insane, being tortured every single day until he dies. You don't need to read it."

"Clearly I do." Mark pointed out, turning the book back to him.

"No." Teddy said, taking out his wand and putting its point onto the page where the death eater's face leered out. "_You don't_. _Incindio_!"

A rush of flames roared over the book as Mark flung it clear of his hands and quilt. "You _idiot_!" He screeched, leaping away. "You could have set me on fire! I bet your family were Death Eaters as well!"

"Yes, s_ome of them were!_" Teddy agreed, his voice stupidly shaky, and his hair a flaming scarlet. "Half my family were! And half of them weren't! And they _all_ killed each other! That's why we're all parentless, you stupid Muggle! It's just an exciting story to you, isn't it! Just a novelty! Like our school and our world! _Scourgify_!" He snarled, washing the Muggle born boys mouth out with a surge of foaming pink soap.


	4. Moving

**Ch.4**

Harry and Ginny sat in pained silence in the Head Mistress's office, listening to Professor McGonagall describing an offensively biased (in Teddy's opinion) account of what had occurred.

Muggle Mark sat listening on the far side of the room, before confirming that, yes, Teddy Lupin, had indeed accused his dorm mate of being nothing but a 'stupid Muggle', scourgified his mouth out with carbolic soap, and set fire to a library book that the smaller Muggle-born wizard boy was using to learn about the history of the wizarding world, _while he was holding it_.

Ginny's lips grew thinner and thinner. Harry's jaw hardened. Teddy watched Muggle Mark from across the Headmistress's office, violet eyes narrowed. Mark kept his own face turned fearfully to the floor; accept when he was asked to confirm what had happened, like a snitchy little snitch.

"There was blood in my mouth." He added, quietly.

"Just like a thorough tooth brushing then." Teddy said, before he could stop himself. His grandmother said had that, when she'd sourgified _his_ mouth out after a particularly lairy row about his parents. He wished his grandmother had shown up instead of Harry and Ginny.

"I don't think you realize the seriousness of your actions!" Professor McGonagall warned him, screechily. "This behavior cannot and will not be tolerated in this school. Violent dangerous spells! Slurs on wizards blood lines! Not to mention damaging school property, and casting spells outside of the classroom environment! If it wasn't for who you are, Master Lupin, I would seriously consider sending you home!"

"...You what?" Teddy stopped with the meek nodding and lifted his head. "If it wasn't for who I _am_?" He repeated.

"You will address me as 'Professor'!" Professor McGonagall squawked, her voice rising even higher.

"Sorry 'Professor'." Teddy corrected. "But how could you possibly expel me for washing his mouth out with soap when he was being offensive? Harry never got expelled for all the totally dangerous and illegal things he did. Nor did my dad and his friends, and they did _truly_ crazy things."

"If your father was standing here today, he would be _appalled _to hear what you have done!" McGonagall assured him, her face stretched taught in ugly outrage.

"Like he didn't do worse things with his friends!"

"_He didn't call people 'Stupid Muggles'_!" Harry interrupted him, sounding just as angry. "His _mother _was a Muggle."

"Well, I'm sorry." Teddy assured him. "But he _is _stupid and he _is _a Muggle."

"I'm a wizard." Mark defended himself, nervously.

"_Oh, of course you are_." Teddy said, patronizingly.

"Harry is a Muggle born wizard!" Ginny added, sounding furious as well.

"Yes and two of my grandparents were." Teddy pointed out. "But he was still being insensitive. And I'll pay for the library book. I'm sure I'm not so poor that I can't do that."

"This is not about the library book!" McGonagall snapped.

"Yes. We are most angry about you calling that boy a 'Stupid Muggle'!" Ginny assured him. "Do you have any idea how offensive that is?"

"He was angry because we've been put in a dormitory with a Death Eater." Mark ventured, heartened by their support. He was surprised by the effect his words had.

The Headmistress hesitated, snapping her mouth closed abruptly. Teddy's guardians froze, Ginny Potter's arm half raised as if she'd been about to start gesticulating again. The Headmistress sighed, and turned back to Harry and Ginny.

"…I wasn't happy about this." She admitted quietly. "I expressly told the prefects to make sure that didn't happen, and I will move Teddy if you, or Andromeda wishes."

"You told the prefects to make sure what didn't happen?" Ginny asked, warily.

"There's a Death Eater in our Dormitory. Two." Mark told them. "Antonin Dolohov's son and..."

"_What!_?" Ginny and Harry both exclaimed in unison. Ginny's chair hit the floor as she shot out of it, bearing down on the headmistresses' desk. "You what?!" She snarled.

"It was an accident." McGonagall explained, hurriedly. "These are the first generation of war babies. In the next couple of years so many children will be coming to Hogwarts whose parents fought..."

"_What the hell do you think you are doing_!?" Ginny screeched, slamming her fist on the Head Mistresses desk to make her shut up. "There is no way...! Oh my _God_! _How dare you!_?"

"It's a very difficult situation!" Professor McGonagall tried to explain, her voice rising. "They are children too, Ginny! To be honest, we really did expect them to all be sorted into Slytherin."

"You're saying it's the Sorting Hat's fault?" Harry asked, sounding pretty furious himself.

"I truly didn't expect those boys to be sorted into Gryffindor." Professor McGonagall said, pushing her glasses firmly back onto her nose and making a cross whistle noise with her breath. "Once they were, I _expressly _told my Prefects to put them all together."

"In a room with my _Godson?_!" Ginny screeched.

"No. No. I told them to make certain Teddy was in a different dormitory. I told the Prefects, expressly. Expressly I told them to make sure Teddy was not with the Dolohov boy."

"I swapped." Teddy told them. "I swapped dormitories. I had no idea you cared so much. No one said to me."

"_You swapped dormitories?_!" Ginny yelled at him, as if this was the most offensive thing in the world.

"Yes." Teddy nodded. "That was my dad's dormitory. Harry told me so. It was his as well. So I swapped."

"_Swap him back_!" Ginny demanded.

"Swap..." Harry hesitated, a hint of uncertainty in his green eyes. "Swap _them_." He finished, finally. "Let Teddy have Remus's old dorm room. I remember what that meant to me, when I found out it was my dad's."

"_Yes_!" Ginny agreed, fiercely. "Yes! Make _them _move! _It's his fault_...!" She stopped, mid-shout. Teddy looked round at her. "_It's his fault_...!" She yelled again, and again got no further at all.

Totally abruptly, Teddy's angry, shouting, Godmother collapsed against her husband's side and gave an abrupt and noisy sob.

"…So, who's in his dormitory?" Harry asked, holding his wife tenderly in his arms.

"Teddy and Mark." McGonagall said, nodding to the girlish Muggle-born boy. "...Emmanuel Parkinson, Gabriel Goyle and... Harry Dolohov."

"And that's Antonin Dolohov's son?" Harry clarified, in quiet disbelief.

"I do realize..." McGonagall assured him. "I will... I will have them removed."

"No wonder Teddy was upset." Ginny muttered, bitterly.

"_I am not moving_." Teddy interrupted, crossly. "_Harry Dolohov is not moving_. Even Miserable Mark here, he's not moving. What in God's name have any of us done?"

"_I'm moving_." Mark assured him, quietly. "I'm not sleeping with Death Eaters. And you're worse than the pair of them."

"They are _not _Death Eaters." Teddy hissed at him.

"Teddy." Harry said, calmly. "Antonin Dolohov was one of Voldemorts inner circle. A evil, psycopathic and ruthless dark wizard."

"Do you honestly think I don't know who Antonin Dolohov is?" Teddy asked him.

"He killed your father." Ginny said, her voice choked with the horror. "We were _there_, Teddy."

Teddy was aware of Mark gasping slightly dramatically in the far corner. He took a thoughtful breath and wondered for a moment what colour his hair was right now. "_Do you honestly think I don't know who Antonin Dolohov is_?" He repeated, calmly.

"Well." Harry hesitated. "Teddy... Don't you think you would find it easier starting school, and being away from home, without having to share a room with... him."

"_He is not sharing a dorm with them_!" Ginny hissed.

"Yes, _I am_." Teddy said. "Send an owl to my Grandmother. It's up to her, not you. I'm not moving."


	5. Muggles don't have a clue

**CH.5**

"Are you in trouble?" Harry Dolohov asked, hovering anxiously in the centre of the dorm.

"Nope." Teddy flung himself down on his bed and gazed at the cloth roof of the four-poster. "Headmistress flu-ed in my Godfather to have a go… Threatened to put me in another dorm."

"But they won't, will they?" Harry asked, failing badly to hide his unease.

"No. They're going to ask my gran and she's going to tell them to bugger off. She doesn't let people tell her what to do, and she doesn't like people telling me what to do either. I've just been to the Owlery to send her a letter. She'll be glad I wrote."

"I promised my mum I'd write." Harry sighed, watching Teddy uneasily.

"Glad it went alright." Gabriel muttered, still stumbling through his homework. "They don't know what they're talking about, do they."

"Muggles?" Teddy asked, interested. Gabriel shrugged his big shoulders.

"Wasn't nothing to do with Muggles, was it." He said, before squinting into his parchment again.

"What do you think, Harry Dolohov?" Teddy asked turning back to him. Harry drew his eyes off Teddy's hair which had just changed from a mad combination of flaming scarlet, orange and yellow to the same violet as his eyes. Harry swallowed.

"You can always just call me Harry, you know." He pointed out. "If that ever gets too much of a mouthful." Teddy's lips twitched at the corners and he shrugged. "...And." Harry said, uneasily. "I guess Mark deserved it. I don't think Muggles have a clue what the wars did to all of us.

It's not like we could chose, is... " He glanced uneasily at Teddy and swallowed. "...It's not like we had any say over what the last generation did to each other."

Teddy sighed and rested back on his pillows. "That, Harry Dolohov, is exactly what I said." He agreed. "You don't punish children for the sins of their fathers, do you?"

Silence pervaded the room. "...I guess my dad did some pretty bad things." Gabriel muttered, uneasily. "My granddad certainly did."

"He didn't mean you." Harry said, swallowing rather frantically.

"I meant all of us." Teddy glanced over at him again. "I did. We're all in the same boat, the way I see it. And it's a broken enough boat, the way our parent's generation ripped it to pieces, so the last thing we want to do is mess it up anymore."

"You're smart, Teddy." Gabriel offered, thinking about it intently. "Since I got on that train yesterday I've been hexed, tripped, hit, spat at, been told I'm dirt, and that my mum is a..." He blew hot air noisily from his mouth again. "My mum and dad were _seventeen _when I was born."

"It _is _hard to imagine how many truly awful things your dad had time to do." Teddy agreed. "To deserve to spend the rest of his life with Azkaban's Dementors."

"Going to get some fresh air." Harry muttered, hurrying to the door.

Teddy watched him go, before turning back to Gabriel. "Want some help with that homework?" He asked.

"You should have been put in Ravenclaw, with a brain like yours." Teddy said, watching Gabriel painstakingly copying the essay Teddy had just written for him. Gabriel's lips twitched, but he carried on writing, so Teddy went down to the Common Room to see if he could find Harry Dolohov.

Instead he found Muggle Mark, who was sitting on his own, looking as much like a girl as ever. "Did you get your new dorm, Moody Mark?" Teddy asked, flopping down next to him. "Have you snitched on Professor Malfoy as well?"

"For throwing a _Board Rubber_ at me?" Mark asked, scowling. "Not yet. And you _set fire _to the book I was holding. And don't call me names. You're asking for a stupid nickname with your stupid purple hair."

"I choose to make my hair purple." Teddy pointed out, changing it back to the blue he'd started the day with. "You wish you had hair cool hair. You look like a girl."

Mark sighed, scowling at the fire and the older students sitting around it. "Wish I'd never come to this stupid school." He said, bitterly.

"Do you want me to show you how to set fire to things with your wand?" Teddy suggested. Mark frowned at him, trying hard to look uninterested. "I can tell you funny stuff about the teachers."

"Like what?"

"Like why Professor Malfoy hates being an animangus."

"I'd like to hear that." Mark said, brightening up. "And I don't even _know_ what an _animangus_ is."

"It's the animal that lives inside you." Teddy told him. "My animangus will be a wolf because my dad was a Werewolf and my mum and dad both had wolf patronas."

"Your dad was a what, what?!" Mark choaked, flaberghasted. Teddy laughed.

"A Werewolf." He said. "My dad turned into a massive wolf that could rip people to pieces, just like that. People think all Werewolves are evil but he was this massive hero. He was a teacher here, as well. Probably the best one ever."

"No _way_!" Mark demanded. "Seriously?"

"Siriusly." Teddy laughed. "Do you know what a Patrona is?"

"A dad thing?" Mark suggested. "Isn't that latin for 'dad something'?"

"Yes. But a patrona is like all the good positive energy that _anyone _has ever given to you, manifested in a being of pure energy. You can blast it out of your wand and it will fight for you. My grandmother's is a Thestral. How cool is _that_?"

"I'm guessing that's very cool, but I don't know what a Thestral is, because some freak set fire to my book about Wizarding stuff."

"Serves you right." Teddy assured him, dragging the smaller boy to his feet. "Come on. You're going to love this. We have to go somewhere secret. There are hundreds of secret passages hidden all over Hogwarts and a room that turns into whatever you want. Let's go find some!"


	6. The Hanging

**Ch.6**

"_Incendio_!" Teddy yelled, sending a stream of fire roaring out of his wand to igniting the damp grass. He was thoroughly enjoying Muggle Mark's gasps of amazement. They'd had no luck finding any secret passages, but had successfully slipped through a ground floor window, to take their charms practicing out into the quiet grounds.

"There is a secret passage under the Whomping Willow." Teddy informed Mark, blackening a strip of grass towards the creaking tree. "There's a knot on the base of the trunk you can push, and it stops the tree attacking. You have a minute to get into the secret tunnel. I'll show you, one day."

"Incendio!" Mark cried, aiming his wand at the ground. Teddy tried hard not to laugh.

"You are useless at that." He laughed. "Like this. _Incendio_!" He drew a circle of fire on the ground between them. "My grandmother taught me. She's old school. Both your parents are alive then, are they?"

"Er, yes." Mark shrugged. "Sorry about yours not being." He added. "I guess it's not your fault you were upset. It's really sad."

"I know. But it's the same for most of us. You Muggle wizards have no idea."

"We had wars as well, you know." Mark told him. "And your wars hurt Muggles too. We just didn't know."

"That's for sure. Muggles must be dense as ditchwater to not have realized what was going on... Is that... _Is that Harry Dolohov_!?"

Teddy broke into a run, bounding across the grass towards the high walls of the castle, where two stores up, Harry Dolohov, scarlet faced and gasping, thrashed about, choaked by the neck of the cloak he was suspended by.

"_Accio broom!_" Teddy comanded, as hard as he could. "_Accio! Broom_!"

With a loud crash half a dozen brooms burst over the low wall and landed on the ground around them.

"_Up_!" Teddy comanded, straddling the first one he could snatch hold of, and rising into the cold night air.

"Be careful!" Mark yelled, below him, as Teddy rose to a level with Harry Dolohov, and helped him onto the broom.

"That was a bit of an extreme way to get some fresh air!" Teddy laughed, holding the broom steady as Harry unfastened the neck of his cloak, and abandoned it to the window he'd been tied to. "Are you alright, Harry Dolohov?"

Harry didn't answer. He held onto the the broom and onto Teddy's arm, painfully tightly. Unable to cover his face, he burst into tears.

"Bring him down!" Mark yelled, far below them. "Shall I get a teacher, Teddy?!" Teddy peered down at him before giving Harry Dolohov an uncertain hug.

"Don't worry, Harry." He patted his back, awkwardly. "We'll stay up here till you pull yourself together."

"...Thought I was… going to _die_." Harry sobbed, covering his face with both hands as soon as he was sure Teddy was holding him on the broom. "_...Don't think I can... do this... Want my mum, Teddy... I want to go home_."

"_That _is not an option." Teddy assured him. "We'll be fine, Harry Dolohov. We will stick together, you and me. Stop crying, you look like more of a girl than Muggle Mark. We'll find who ever shoved you out of that window and make their lives a living hell... Was it Slytheins?" He added, slightly too hopefully. Harry Dolohov just carried on crying, so eventually Teddy was forced to fly back to the ground.

"You alright, mate?" Muggle Mark asked, warily. He produced a very soft floppy piece of pale pink parchment from his pocket and presented it to Harry Dolohov, meaningfully.

"...What is it?" Harry stopped crying, peering at the floppy gift.

"A tissue, mate." Mark said, surprised that he didn't know. He glanced at Teddy who looked equally baffled.

"This is a Muggle thing?" Teddy swiped it from between them, turning, wafting and tugging until it tore. "Oh, bugger! I'm sorry, Mark!"

He got his wand out and cast "_Repario!_" which sucessfully pulled the paper back together. "So, what do you do with it?" He asked, eyes bright with curiosity. "It feels too weak for a quill is it for a Muggle pencil to write on?"

"Seriously?" Mark asked. "It's to blow your nose and wipe your face, you pair of weirdos."

"_Like a handkerchief_!" They both exclaimed, at once. Harry sniffed and used the tissue to do both.

"...Was it Slytherins?" Teddy asked, when he'd waited as long as he could bare.

"_Gryffindors._" Harry whispered. "Massive ones."

"_No way_!" Teddy gasped, very genuinely shocked.

"Did you do anything?" Mark suggested, thoughtfully.

Harry lifted dark reproachful eyes before he shook his head. His pale cheeks were blotchy from crying and Teddy could tell he was making his own face imitate the pink and white patterning, by thinking about it too much. He made himself return to his regulation blue-haired coolness.

"Your hair just changed colour." Mark told him. "It's gone blue again."

"Thank's for the update." Teddy said, sarcastically. "I wonder where these brooms came from?"

"We should just leave them." Mark pointed out. "We're bound to get caught dragging them about. Are you sure we shouldn't tell a teacher?"

"You are such an utter snitch." Teddy complained, his hair turning an irritated shade of red. Mark, was sure Teddy hadn't done that on purpose, any more than he'd made his hair go white when he'd seen Harry Dolohov being hung by his own cloak out of the second floor window, or the diabolical flame shades it had been when he'd brought him down on the broom.

They walked through the Gryffindor Common Room together. It was quieter now. Only older students, that glanced meaningfully at each other as the three boys walked silently to their dorm.


	7. Harry Dolohov's Arm

**Ch.7**

Gabriel Goyle was snoring noisily in the dark room, as they crept inside. Teddy and Harry both used lumos charms to make enough light to reach their beds.

Miserable Emanuel Parkinson hadn't come to his bed again, and the room was still and quiet. Teddy took his pyjamas with him to the bathroom, because he thought it was beyond weird to get naked in front of his new friends. He didn't know if Harry and Mark felt the same. They'd both changed when he got back. Mark was in bed reading a book, which he asked Teddy not to set fire to as he padded past. Harry Dolohov was sitting on Teddy's bed, waiting for him.

"A rat has chewed your bed." He said, as soon as Teddy reached him.

"_What_?" Teddy said.

"A rat." Harry ran his hand along the nibbled wood. "Someone's pet. It's chewed your bed. Don't look so freaked out, it's obviously old damage..."

He watched uncertainly as Teddy lept off the bed he'd just joined him on, his hair turning a dull green. Although Harry wasn't remotely scared of rats, Teddy's expression made him rise nervously off the bed as well. "I'm sure it's old, Teddy." He muttered again. "It was chewed years ago. None of us have got rats. You're not scared of them are you?"

After a moment taken to compose himself, Teddy sat reluctantly back on his bed and looked around the room. "This was my dad's dormitory." He whispered to Harry Dolohov. "When _he_ was at school. I thought this might be his bed, but if it's been chewed by a rat, then it's not."

"...It could have been someone else's pet rat, in between?" Harry muttered, eyeing Teddy uncertainly.

"It's not." Teddy said, heavily. "It's hard to explain. Your bed wasn't here then. It's newer, and there were only four of them. This bed is Wormtails, and Muggle Marks one is James's, because he wrote that he loved Lily underneath it.

"That's the best bed." Harry said, thoughtfully. "The beds by the door are drafty, so the beds right inside the room are going to be warmer."

"I hadn't thought of that." Teddy admitted. "I think... How long do you think that mirror's been there?"

"As long as the castle's existed, by the look of it." Harry flashed him an uncertain smile.

"So." Teddy decided. "My dad wasn't remotely vain. He didn't even like being photographed. But Sirius was probably very vain, so I think he had the bed by the mirror."

"Which means your dad's bed was Emmanuel's." Harry concluded.

"Yes." Teddy agreed. "So I'm going to swap. Want to help me?"

"'K." Harry flashed him a grin, before going over to Emanuel's nightstand and removing the draw. Teddy removed his and they swapped them over. Then dragged the two trunks to their new respective beds.

"Do you want to change the sheets and all that faff?" Harry asked. Muggle Mark watched them from behind his book.

"Teddy, I know what a thestral is now." He whispered across the room. "That is _wicked_. Can you see your grandmother's partona?"

"Your _Granny _has a t_hestral _for her _patrona_?" Harry asked, in disbelief.

"You'd understand if you met her." Teddy assured him. "And yes, I can see it, but I can't see thestrals... Can you?"

"No." Muggle Mark glanced up at Harry, suspiciously. "You?" Harry shook his head, and quickly transfered Teddy's jug of water to his new nightstand.

"My own personal house elf." Teddy mocked, settling on his new bed, by the drafty door, happily. "G'night Harry Dolohov. G'night Muggle Mark."

"G'night Gonzo." Mark said, closing his book and blowing out his candle.

"Your Muggle wit means _nothing _to me." Teddy told him. "You, Harry?" He asked, the hovering Harry Dolohov.

"Nope." Harry said, but he came back to sit on the bed again. "...Teddy." He muttered, glancing at his only friend, uneasily. "You know that repario spell you did on Muggle Mark's Tissue parchment? Do you think you could do it on this?" With a deep breath he tugged up the sleeve of his pajamas to reveal a very bloody cut, crudely shaped like a snake tongued skull.

"_Oh my God_!" Teddy yelled, leaping out of his bed in a tangle of sheets.

"Oh, _please shut up_." Harry begged, glancing fearfully around the dorm as tears started to prick his eyes again. "_Please.._. Do you think you can make it go away?"

"_Those Gryffindor's did this_?!" Teddy yelled, his eyes flashing a shocking crimson in the dim moonlight.

"Please try to fix it." Harry begged him, choking on his own sobs. "If my mum saw this... Oh please, Teddy."

"We have to tell the Prefects, _right now_." Teddy told him, firmly.

"The Prefects _were there._" Harry sobbed, covering his face with both trembling white hands. "You don't understand how much everybody hates me, Teddy. I hate me. There's something wrong with you, that you don't hate me, cause... cause... you _know_, don't you Teddy. You do know what my dad did, don't you? Are you just waiting to do something awful to me?"

"Of course I'm not." Teddy put his arms back around Harry's shoulders for the second time that evening. He shook his head firmly at Gabriel, who was sitting up and offering to Lumos his wand. "Of course I'm not. And yes, of course I know. Do you remember what I said, about our ship and us all being stuck in it together, and not sinking it by acting like our parents did?"

"_That was me you said to_." Gabriel hissed loudly at them, making Harry freeze, silent and mortified, stifling his pathetic tears. "...Unless you said it twice, Teddy."

"He said it before I went." Harry said, sniffing and drying his eyes. "I heard. I do want to do that, with the ship and not fighting..."

"…_What the hell is wrong with your arm_?" Gabriel interrupted, sharply. Harry snatched it back, tugging his sleeve down.

"At least they haven't tried to do it to you as well." Teddy pointed out, uneasily.

"_Oh.._. _That_." Gabriel said, which pretty much said it all.

"They've tried to?" Muggle Mark asked, nervously. Gabriel shrugged, lying down again and pulling the covers up to his nose. Muggle Mark raised his girl eye-brows at Teddy, nervously, and followed Gabriel's example.

Teddy took his wand off the night stand and pointed it at the bloody mess. "Brace yourself, this might smart a touch." He warned.


	8. Yellow Coal

**Ch.8**

'_Repario_' did not work on human skin. Harry Dolohov had sat grey faced and jaw clenched through three attempts, which spoke volumes for his well hidden Gryfindor courage.

"The third attempt had been in the morning and had made them miss breakfast.

Much to Muggle Marks consternation, Harry refused to go to the hospital wing to have the cut looked at, even though Mark was sure the scary matron would know what spell to use to fix it. Harry was either too scared or too ashamed.

"Professor Malfoy..." Teddy whispered to his friends, as they waited in the corridor outside Transfiguration. "Has an _actual _Dark Mark on his left forearm."

"_Professor Malfoy was a Death Eater!_?" Muggle Mark hissed, glancing fearfully up the corridor. "No wonder he hates me. Do you think he knows I'm Muggle-born?"

"Yes!" All three of his friends said at once. Teddy grinned at him.

"Presuming he's read your parchment. He's not that scary." He whispered. "His animangus is a ferret! He hates it. But you can't change your animangus. It's part of your soul."

"I thought your mum did." Muggle Mark hissed at him. "So she could be a werewolf, like your dad."

"Her partona, Troll-brain." Teddy rolled his eyes. "It's the height of romantic. My mum was big on romance. She was really young and beautiful. My grandmother was utterly appalled that she'd married my dad, because he was this dangerous old Werewolf, off fighting all the time."

"I'm sorry." Harry stammered. Teddy broke off from his elaboration, eyeing the pale boys face and hoping to God he didn't start crying again, in front of the rest of the class. "I'm sorry, Teddy." Harry said again, dark eyes sparkling but voice steady. "I didn't say before. I just... I hope you know I am... Sorry."

"Like I said." Teddy reminded him, briskly. "We aren't responsible. I wish I was a Werewolf. Can you imagine how bloody brilliant that must have been?"

"It would be cool." Gabriel nodded, but he didn't smile, watching the rest of the students for any sign of trouble. He nudged Teddy as Professor Malfoy swept down the corridor, in his long green robes.

"Long sleeves." Teddy hissed, quietly. "Hiding the Dark Mark. And he's actually one of the nicest men I know."

"Obviously you don't know a lot of men." Muggle Mark whispered back, flinching as Professor Malfoy's pale eyes picked him out of the lined up students, with an icy glare.

"Enter in silence, first years." He commanded, taking up his position behind the teachers desk.

"Books closed, class." Professor Malfoy drawled with a bored yawn. "In front of each of you is a lump of coal. You will turn it yellow. If you fail, you will go and stand in _that _corner." He gestured to the back of the classroom. "If you succeed you will turn the yellow coal into a yellow stone, then a lemon and finally a chick. Fail to make a lemon, go and stand in _that_ corner, fail with the chick, this corner here. Succeed in every task and you may stay in your seat. Fail entirely and you can take yourself into the corridor." He upended an hour glass and looked up expectantly.

This statement was met with slightly shocked silence. Professor Malfoy had already left his desk and started immediately stalking the classroom, hands clasped behind his back, watching with a smightly mocking distain as the first years paniced silently around him.

"Spectro melon?" Harry Dolohov murmered, uncertainly.

"Yeah. I've read the chapter." Mark whispered, shutting up and staring at his feet as Malfoy passed, giving Teddy a look.

"Right." Teddy said, bracingly. "The first spell is '_spectro melon_' but it's all in the way you flick your wand, and... _He did all these spells with me, last time he was at my house._"

"That is unethical and unfair." Mark complained. "Coal to stone is in the second chapter. I bet it's to see how many chapters we've read... _Harry Dolohov_!" He complained bitterly, as Harry's coal changed to a brilliant sunshine yellow. Teddy sniggered at Muggle Mark using Harry's full name as well.

"Wow." Harry said. "You Teddy?"

"Of course. He's shown me all of these." He looked up to check Draco wasn't looking, before tapping the other three lumps of coal to turn them yellow, then to stone, then lemons.

"Chicks." Muggle Mark muttered, urgently.

"That is OWL level." Teddy told him, irritated. "He didn't show me that!"

They looked around the class, to see how everyone else was getting on. Draco was showing Emanuel Parkinson how to flick his wand, to create the lemon. Teddy watched, making a mental note to write to his grandmother, to find out who Emanuel was, that Draco wanted to help him too.

"Prattish Parkinson?" Muggle Mark suggested, quietly.


	9. The Inheritance

**Ch.9**

In a surprisingly short time the new pupils settled into their school routine. Teddy enjoyed all his classes, and found he was better than almost everyone, at almost everything. This was, as his friends pointed out, because Muggle-borns were starting out from scratch, sons of Death Eaters were not encouraged to use magic from a young age, and most families that had fought against Voldemort were dead or as good as.

Teddy's grandmother had given him a wand on his sixth birthday and had made sure he learnt how to use it. Despite being in her fifties when she'd taken Teddy in, she was not very granny-ish.

It was unquestionably true that she loved Teddy with a passion. Teddy didn't doubt that. Andromeda Black loved him as much as she could love anyone. Almost her entire family had been murdered at each other's hands. Her husband had been tortured to death and her only child killed by her sister. That alone would probably have been enough to drive the sanest woman over the edge, and the Blacks were not famed for their sanity. It was safe to say that Andromeda that had raised him, was very different to the one that had raised his mother. _That _Andromeda, Teddy called her 'Andromeda Tonks' to distinguish her from the Andromeda of after the wars, that had raised him. Andromeda _Tonks _had been madly in love with her Muggle husband, estranged from her family, and raised their baby through the wars.

Teddy's name sake, the said wonderful husband, was almost certainly a pretty great guy. Brave and kind, yet presumably very calm and forgiving if he could deal with all that Black rage and madness, let alone marry it.

Teddy also suspected, based on his own upbringing, that Teddy senior had been very involved in the raising of his and Andromeda's daughter, and probably largely responsible for their daughter turning into the splendidly liberal, successful and funny woman, that had been his mother for all of his first month of life.

Sadly his grandfather had died while he was in the womb. His parents both died in the final battle of the second war, May 2nd. Both dates were observed each year as other families celebrated birthdays.

Andromeda had loved her husband. She had reverted to her maiden name after his death, but only because Teddy's mum had used 'Tonks' as her nickname and Andromeda could never bear to hear it spoken after her daughters death. For this Teddy was glad. He wished no offense to his never met grandfather, who sounded like he had been an all-round stoic and decent Muggle man. But the 'Tonks' family, whomever they may be, were not wizards, metamorphmagus or clearly as passionate, insane and magical as the Blacks, as Teddy was himself.

He had suggested that he should also take the surname Black. An idea Andromeda had been delighted by, but that had _so _outraged Harry and the vast Potter/Weasley clan that Teddy had, in his childish disadvantage, backed down.

He didn't mind the name Lupin, as such. The Lupins were also presumably Muggles, as there was no record of them in the wizarding family trees, and none of them had ever come looking for Teddy, before or after his parents deaths. It didn't mind. He just knew, in his heart, that he was a Black.

All the Blacks were good at magic. They had paid for the gift in blood and their children's sanity. But they had paid, long before Teddy's birth, and he delighted in his vastly superior wand work. Undeniably Teddy's life at Hogwarts was excellent. His friends were great, although he had to spend far too much time trying to stop them being bullied. He was top in his year at Transfiguraton, Defence against the Dark Arts, Charms and really bad at nothing. And he was well liked as well.

Returning home for the Christmas Holidays was going to be an all round let down.

Muggle Mark's mum was an artist and his father was a vet, which was a healer for animals, only the Muggle kind that fixed thinks with a knife, a needle and some thread. He was going to write to Teddy the Muggle way, because Teddy didn't have a phone or a computer. It puzzled him that Muggle Mark did. If electric was so damaging to magic, how did so many Muggle born wizards have it in _their_ houses? He'd given Mark Harry's address, because he was pretty sure a postman wouldn't find his own.

Teddy liked Harry. More than liked, Teddy loved Harry, and Ginny. He was spending most of the holidays with them. But he also had a deep dark angry grudge against him. This was because Harry was not just Teddy's godfather, he was also Harry Potter, hero, legend saviour of the world. Which meant that, even if he never even got out of bed to go work in his brilliant job as an Aurora, he would still have all the money, respect and happiness he could ever wish for. This he deserved, for saving the world from Lord Voldemort.

Even before Harry had saved the world, he had still been the last son of the House of Potter. His dead father had left him more gold than he could spend in a life time before he was old enough to talk.

Already rich twice over, Harry had also 'inherited' the entire Black family fortune. This was because Cygnus (Teddy's grandfather had sired only girls), his sister and cousin, Walleberga and Orion's sons had both died unmarried and child-less, and their last cousin Alpharad had no children at all.

The inheritance had gone to the eldest son, Sirius. When he had died, his estate should have gone to the other blacks, but the Ministry had honoured his written will and given everything to his Godson Harry Potter.

This, as was painfully obvious to Teddy, was not fair.

Teddy's grandmother had been disinherited, when she had married Ted Tonks. She had lived in the Muggle world in poverty, for love. The hovel Teddy had grown up in, was rented off a Muggle landlord. He had no money. They had no money. His mother had been an Aurora for only a year or so before she died. His father, a Werewolf, had died unemployed and penniless.

This sucked. Sucked so badly it was sometimes hard to swallow. Andromeda had gone to her sister, Cissy, to make sure Teddy had everything he needed for school. Harry had brought him his school books, happy to help and very happy to treat his godson to nice things. It seemed rather churlish to point out that strictly speaking, the only reason Teddy couldn't but his own things was because randomly Harry, already loaded, had inherrited all three of the Black family vaults, when Sirius Black had got himself killed by laughing too hard in the middle of a duel, and falling through a deadly drape.

That was not a cool way to die, but Teddy figured Sirius had been cool enough in life to let it pass. Cygnus's three daughters had all still been living then.

The eldest was Bellatrix. Who was insane and a Death Eater. She had murdered Teddy's mother and Sirius, but strictly speaking she should have inherited. Sirius had inherited despite being an escaped convicted murder, and a believed Death Eater. So Bellatrix probably should have inherited after his death. It made no difference if she inherited or not because like Sirius she died childless. The inheritance should have gone to Andromeda, Teddy's godmother. Then her daugter, then Teddy.

It totally should have. Cissy was the youngest sister and she and Draco were already rich because they were the last Malfoys and had all the Malfoy money and land.

It sucked. His grandmother, Andromeda should have inherited, because Bellatrix was evil and going to die within the year. Andromeda and Teddy's entire life together would have been completely different if they had been sitting in Grimmauld Place, spending their vaults of gold.

Instead Teddy had grown up in a rented Muggle hovel, high on a lonely hillside, trapped in a museum of his dead mother and grandfather's possessions and his broken grandmother, who was probably only willing to stay alive because she felt duty-bound to look after him.

He had mentioned the Black inheritance to Harry, but Harry thought Cissy's son, Draco had the best blood claim, being male and older, and pointed out that Sirius had made him his heir in written deed. Ginny had laughed, and taunted Teddy for his presumption, telling any and sundry so they too could laugh at him for it. That was what Ginny was like. Teddy was used to it. Annoyed, but used to it.

Draco, to whom he'd also mentioned it, just the once, had assured him that like Harry, he had more than enough money of his own. He immediately offered to financially and enthusiastically support Teddy in fighting to get the Black inheritance returned to their family.

Teddy had decided not to mentioned this to Harry and Ginny, nor to take Draco up on the offer. Starting a fight between Harry and Draco was not on his Things-to-do list, nor was starting on his godfather himself.


	10. Home

**Ch.10**

Because he could, Teddy levitated his luggage to the train station. His friends dragged and groaned. Even some OWL level students were dragging and struggling. Teddy loved being the height of cool. His hair reached new levels of blue-ness He decorated his nose with green freckles, copying the pattern of Muggle Marks. His eyes, yup he was studying them reflected in the train window, were amethyst. Teddy loved purple eyes. He liked to pretend that was his natural eye-colour, although common sense told him they weren't. Presumably his eyes were silver really. Cold and husky-like. Or dark and inky black, like the other Black's. Unless they were like his dads, and no one seemed to know what colour Remus Lupin's eyes had been. Teddy hated that.

"Don't you know you've got your daddy's eyes." He sung, trying to remember the tune the words went with. It wouldn't have made much difference if he could remember; he couldn't hold a tune to save his life, as Muggle Mark immediately pointed out. He gave his Muggle suitcase a final yank and kicked it under the seat by the window.

Teddy levitated his own battered leather chest onto the luggage rack and sat down, opposite him. Gabriel heaved his own and Harry Dolohov's into the rack. "You've got your mothers eyes." Mark pointed out, glancing at Teddy's pure white eyes. Harry and Gabriel both shifted in silent discomfort, and Teddy was cheered up slightly by the fact that the topic upset them _even more_ than him. Harry Dolohov did have his daddy's eyes, although knowing the pure-blood families he might his mother's eyes as well. Harry was probably the spitting image of the leering insane Death Eater father, at twelve. Gabriel, for all of his looking like an enormous golden lion, probably thanked his lucky stars that he didn't look like his father, who'd resembled an unusually hairy Mountain Troll.

They bought enough sweets to make them leave the train nauseas. Teddy always made sure he had money for such things. His grandmother always made sure he had money for such things as well. She never really left the hovel on the hill so he was unsurprised to see her absent from the platform as he jumped out of the carriage.

Muggle Mark's Muggle parents hadn't made it onto the platform, so Teddy took it upon himself to take Mark through the barrier to find them. It wasn't often he got the chance to meet Muggles and the idea of a vetinary surgeon was very exciting indeed.

Teddy had a superb book entitled 'The Terror of the Muggle Healers'. It was a highly subversive Death Eater work, about a wizard who is imprisoned in a Muggle hospital while crazy Muggles with knives and electricity try to cut open his brain and dissect him alive, to try and discover the source of his magic.

Ginny's sister-in-law Hermione had burnt his first copy in outrage, while accidentally admitting all sorts of gruesome half-truths hidden in its pages. Teddy had made it his life's mission to track down a second copy, and Draco had come up with the goods for him to take with him to Hogwarts. He read it to his dorm mates of an evening, much to Harry Dolohov's horror and Muggle Marks annoyance.

Muggle Marks's father, rather disappointingly, had no electric clamps or scalpels. He was grey haired and wearing jeans and a navy blazer instead of the proper surgeons out-fit, which Teddy knew was a pale green top, trousers, hat and half-face mask, all smeared and splattered with blood.

Mr. Muggle-Mark was actually rather boring, and talked incessantly about the variety of owls being carried through the barrier.

Mrs. Muggle-Mark was wearing an enormous shirt, splattered in many different colours of paint. She looked a lot like Mark. Same green eyes, auburn hair and girlish features. She told him he had nice hair (still blue) and thanked him for looking after her baby, to which he laughed out loud while Muggle Mark face-palmed in mortification.

Harry Dolohov and Gabriel Goyle had both said their farewells on the train and fled with their respective grandparents, so reluctantly Teddy took himself home in a Muggle taxi.

.

Shaking off the blue hair (it reminded Andromeda too upsettingly of his mother) he let himself into the hovel on the hill with a tap of his wand.

His grandmother was standing in the hallway, expectantly. A smile flickering on her gaunt face before she swept across the faded carpet to embrace him. "Thank you for your infrequent correspondence." She said, kissing the top of his head.

"I had to write to Harry as well." Teddy pointed out, crushing her back, fiercely. "That's twice as many letters as anyone else. I missed you awfully."

"I missed you very competently." Andromeda informed him. "It appears to be the only thing you have done awfully, if I am to trust the letter from Minerva. Cissy said you're top in Draco's class and just about everything else."

"Draco is a horrible teacher!" Teddy laughed, at once. "Have you seen him?"

"I may have..." She let go of him so he could see that Draco was in fact standing behind her, chubby blond haired child in his arms, a smirk plastered on his pale face.

"Yes. He's a great teacher." Teddy corrected himself with the breath that remained in his lungs.

"Nice to see you dropped the hideous hair." Draco assured him. "In what way is my teaching so great?"

"It's always... Striking?" Teddy suggested. Draco chortled and Scorpius laughed loudly. Andromeda guided Teddy into the front room, immaculate in its faded glory, the familiar faces of his mother and grandfather smiled down at him from the mantel piece, and his great aunt, Cissy, stood to embrace him, studying his face with a critical eye.

.

"You look more like him than ever." She said, sighing as she finished her appraisal.

"Teddy looks however he wants." Draco pointed out, irritably. "He's been sporting hair that would have put any other student in detention, all term."

"What colour?" Andromeda asked, uneasily.

"Blue." Draco said, ignoring it. "Mostly. And a face like Ginny Weasley's before she fell out of the ugly tree." Cissy and Andromeda ignored him and Teddy gave him a hard look that increased Draco's smirk.

"Ginny said you wrote her a love poem when you were at school." Teddy told him. "Called Ode for a Weasel and a Ferret."

"I hope you're joking." Draco said, sounding delightfully appalled. "Obviously I did no such thing."

"It's very long." Teddy said, delighted. "They all know it by heart and quote it randomly at family get togethers."

"Whatever." Draco's shoulders twitched as if he was trying to shrug off his annoyance. "It's probably the only entertainment they can afford. Rats have less offspring."

"They are loaded." Teddy reminded him. "Sickeningly so."

"About that..." Draco said, his lip twitching into a badly repressed smile.

"_What_ about that?" Cissy asked, sharply. Draco gave Teddy a meaningful look and picked his son up again, busying himself with fatherly duties.

.

Draco, Teddy thought, was a pretty good father. He'd gone home now, taking Aunt Cissy and Scorpius. The house was as silent as the crypt it most resembled. Andromeda had gone to bed and Teddy had sent owls to Harry Dolohov and Gabriel. Now there was nothing left to do.

He didn't bother to unpack his trunk. He wandered downstairs and looked at the familiar pictures of his mum and granddad. His mother rolled her eyes, big brown eyes that he'd never seen her wearing in any other picture. He'd always thought it was strange that Andromeda chose that picture for her mantel piece, until Cissy had told him it was the last picture that had been taken before Dora had died. Tonks. Who used their surname with their friends? Especially with a name as ugly as that.

Andromeda didn't have a picture of her daughters' wedding. She'd given the only existing one to Teddy. It was the only picture of his dad where Remus wasn't almost entirely turned away from the camera. Teddy didn't like the picture much. He slightly hated it. His mum looked very pink haired, pink cheeked and pretty. She looked sweet and so very happy, but his dad didn't. Teddy didn't think the smile he adopted for the camera could be seen as anything but utterly forced. He didn't look like a fierce Werewolf either. He looked, Teddy always thought, quite sullen.

Maybe he hated the photographer. maybe he hated being photographed because of the scars. Teddy didn't know who'd taken the photo, but he knew that two weeks later his dad had found out that Dora was pregnant with Teddy and left her.

His mum had come back to this house, and stayed with Andromeda for the next six months. Remus had made his peace with her before Teddy was born, but got himself and Dora killed four weeks after Teddy's birth. He'd hardly been an exemplary father. Or husband.

Teddy didn't like that photo. He liked the one where Remus was at school, and you only caught a flicker of his face before Sirius had flung his arms around him and accidentally whacked him in the back with the Quidditch House Cup.

The house felt very empty. He missed school already. He missed Harry Dolohov, and Gabriel and Mark. Mark was probably watching telly or playing on the computer. His dad probably wasn't butchering animals with bloody green hospital scrubs on.

'Hospital scrubs' was the correct name of the green blood splattered clothes. _You see, Hermione, even Death Eater books can be educational_. Teddy sighed, glanced at the clock to see if it had passed midnight and decided he would fly to a phone box and ring Harry Dolohov.


	11. Marks Mum and the File from the Ministry

**Ch.11**

"Hello?" The voice sounded like Muggle Mark, only even more female.

"Oh hello?" Teddy said into the phone. He tried not to sound as nervous as he felt. It was very strange to talk to someone you couldn't see. Not like putting your head in the flu network at all. "I can't see you." He added, although she presumably knew. "Am I talking to Mark's mother?"

There was a pause and then a laugh. "Yes, you're talking to Marks mother, Lotus. To whom am I speaking?"

"You're speaking to Teddy Lupin, his friend from school. On the phone."

"You're up late, Teddy." The little voice came back. It was funny because she did really sound like Mark. She had the same accent. "Are your parents around?"

"They're dead actually." He explained, politely. "I live with my grandmother. It's very exciting to speak to you on a telephone, but could I also speak to Mark on this number?" There was a peal of laughter.

"Yes you can, but not at two o'clock in the morning, I'm afraid. Eleven year olds ringing each other in the early hours of the morning must be a Wizarding thing, Teddy. Is your grandmother around for me to speak to?"

"She's in bed. We don't have a phone. I've come to a phone box. Your son gave me Muggle money and this number. I'm afraid he didn't tell me what would be the best time to ring; I didn't know I would have to speak to you. I do hope I haven't woken you up. I'd get hexed if I woke my grandmother this late, although she is very old."

"I wasn't sleeping. Teddy, are you not at home now?"

"No. I have come to this little village where I remembered they had a phone box. You can't see me, can you?"

"No… Teddy, does your grandmother know you're out of the house?"

"No, but only because I didn't want to wake her. Like I said, there's the hexing to think about."

"Teddy, love, this is going to sound awfully mother-ish, but I'm a bit worried about you being out so late, like this. If you went back home now, is there any way you can let me know you got yourself back safely?"

"Yes of course, I could send you an owl." Teddy offered at once. "I was going to send one earlier to say Hi to Mark, but we aren't really meant to send owls into Muggle areas. You're not on the flu network are you?"

"I would guess not." She laughed again. "Teddy, love, what do we do? Where did you say you were?"  
"In a telephone box. A real one. I can't see you. You can't see me at all, can you?" He peered thoughtfully at the tiny holes on the receiver in his hand, through which her voice arrived.

"In a village, Teddy? Do you know the villages' name?"

"A Muggle village. The shop is still open and all the street lights are still on. That's why I thought you would be awake, with you being Muggles as well. I should probably take Muggle Studies, but they don't offer it till next year, and I'd rather practice flying which I think conflicts."

"Wow." Mrs. Muggle Mark said. "Right. What do we do about this?"

"Well, I should probably go home. But it was very nice speaking to you. If you're sure it wouldn't offend your Muggle sensibilities I will send an owl to Mark."

"That wouldn't offend my Muggle Sensibilities." Muggle Marks mum said. "That would reassure my Mum-ish Sensibilities. I'm right in thinking you're the tall blue haired boy from the station, aren't you? You did look very sensible and grown up."

"I am very grown up." Teddy assured her. "It'll only take me an hour or so to fly home. I could probably send at owl when I get back."

"And how long will that take to get to me, so I know you're alright?"

"Not long but now I must go because the money has run out. It was very nice speaking to you, Lotus. Good night."

Teddy put the phone down carefully and sighed. Being out of the house, he decided, was actually as lonely as being in it.

Harry and Ginny's could do with being a bit lonelier. Teddy always spent Christmas with his Godparents, just as Andromeda always spent Christmas at the graveside of her only daughter and husband. Obviously Harry's was preferable, but the margin was growing narrow.

Harry and Ginny now had three children. James was four, Albus was three like Scorpius, but completely out of control, and Lily was a baby, which puked a lot and had learnt to walk while Teddy had been at school.

Since he'd arrived at the house the children had managed to pull the Christmas tree over three times, unwrapped a ton of presents, Albus had burnt himself on a tray of biscuits fresh out of the oven, and Lily had puked on his shoes.

Teddy always wore shoes at Harry and Ginny's. And jeans, a t-shirts and a jacket with a zip. At home he wore wizarding robes and boots. All the family did. Even Scorpius, once he had graduated from his baby clothes, had been dressed in mini robes. He had a little wizard hat as well.

All Harry's children were dressed like Muggles. Harry was. He was wearing jeans that were still damp from Lily's puking, and Ginny's hasty cleaning spell. Lovely though they both were, Harry and Ginny were just the worst parents ever. Harry, Teddy could understand, his parents being dead and him being raised by horrible relatives. But Ginny was a Weasley and should have had enough practice. Maybe it was because she was the youngest.

Draco and Astoria were much better parents, in Teddy's humble opinion. Astoria's House Elf looked after Scorpio so his parents could sit down and have normal conversations, and when Draco did want to do things with him, Scorpio listened nicely and did what he was told. James and Albus fought all the time, pretending to hex each other with anything wand shaped they found in the house. Sometimes they got hold of an actual wand. Those fights were legendary.

The Potter house was madder than usual at Christmas because Ginny's brothers had all shown up with their children. It was actually a bit like some sort of torture that the Death Eaters might have used to force people into Voldemorts' service. Would Teddy take the Dark Mark to make the screaming, fighting and puking stop? Possibly. Very possibly.

The Weasley-Potters were discussing money. They were all loaded. They probably didn't know how broke Teddy and Andromeda were, and if they didn't Teddy was glad of it, but he hated listening to them going on about all their money.

Sirius had inherited all the Black money and property even though he'd been supposedly disowned so why shouldn't Andromeda have? Because she was female? That was rubbish. That was Muggle rules. Andromeda should have inherited over Cissy, because she was older. And anyway, Cissy was the only person who knew how poor Andromeda really was. She wouldn't even want a share of the Black Inheritance. Draco had said he thought Teddy should have it. So why didn't Harry?

Minerva McGonagall, Hogwarts Headmistress, had asked Ginny if she would be willing to cover the Defense against the Dark Arts, as a stand in teacher, while their current Professor visited his ailing relatives in Peru. Obviously they didn't need the money. _Obviously_. And Ginny thought she would like to teach but Harry wasn't sure if it leaving Lily motherless when she was only just one was okay. Get a House Elf, Teddy thought. Get lots, to sort all the chaos out. Baby Roxanne, Teddy noticed, had just taken her nappy off and Lucy had stuck her hand in a big fat poo. Teddy wondered exactly how peaceful and calm the graveyard was, and if his mother would like a visit.

He loved Christmas with Harry really. He loved it best when all the children had gone to bed. They seemed to keep on coming down stairs for most of the night, but it was still better. Hermione found time to give him another lecture on anti-Muggle literature, and Ron got drunk and got rather angry about Harry Dolohov sharing his dorm, but Ron was like that.

"Percy found this." Ginny said, thrusting a bound leather folder at him. Percy was sitting in the room with them. He forced a slightly uncertain smile.

"Ministry's having a spruce up." He said. "McKinnon's left. Everything's a right old mess."

"It's a file on your dad." Ginny explained, brightly. "Nothing very interesting. The Ministry was always down on Werewolves, but Percy thought you might like to have it."

"No, I didn't." Percy said, quickly. "It's just paperwork."

"Take it in the kitchen, if you want to have a nose." Ginny offered. "Chuck it if you don't want it. Percy rescued it from the bin."


	12. The photos or Remus

**Ch.12**

Teddy did take it in the kitchen. Harry was reading the Prophet, hiding from all the noise. The dishes were washing themselves slightly clumsily in the sink.

"Percy didn't give you that folder, did he?" Harry frowned, folding up the paper.

"Yes, why?" Teddy asked, surprised. "Whats in it?"

"Nothing." Harry said, but he came and sat next to Teddy, as if he was still six and Harry was going to help him read 'My First Book of Spells'. Teddy was surprised Harry didn't put his arm around him, he looked so concerned. _Now_ he was worried what might be in the leather file.

.

Teddy tipped the entire contents onto the table and spread it out. There were only a few parchments and, very unbelievably, two photos. Photo of Remus Lupin, actually looking at a camera. Not one, but two. Teddy picked the first up, staring at it. This was his dad not grown up but really young. Probably about four, like James. He was a blondie haired child, with a horrible red cut on his face. He looked very small, standing against a stretch of grey stone wall, his small hands clutched tightly together over a small black gown. It was Hogwarts. Teddy was sure, although he couldn't see anything to prove it. He just felt sure the wall belonged somewhere in Hogwarts.

.

"I really don't think this is for you." Harry said, unhappily. His chair screeched as he pushed it back and went off into the living room with one of the pieces of paper. Teddy ignored it, looking at the little child-father, with his horrible injury and his small frightened face. He looked wretched. Teddy wondered if he ever smiled. He wondered what he had been doing in Hogwarts when he was so small, and what he had looked like when he was eleven. It was a shame that no 'first day at school' photos survived. Although he didn't blame Andromeda for not keeping his dads things, if she'd ever had any. Maybe they were as lost as his dad's family, who had never come to find out what had happened to Teddy.

.

He picked up the other photo, which was his father completely grown up. Harry didn't know how old. Apart from the year he'd taught at Hogwarts Teddy knew nothing about his fathers' adult life. He'd 'worked undercover with other Werewolves' whatever that might entail. And he'd lived with Sirius when he'd been released from Azkaban, helping fight the war against Voldemort. But these weren't easily imagined things.

.

In the photo Remus was wearing a shirt, a Muggle shirt, and slightly funky trousers. His hair, light brown, was long enough to get in his eyes, but shorter than his collar. Teddy could just make out that his eyes were a slightly golden hazel, which he'd never known before. The terrible red wound from his childhood picture was still visible as a white scar ridding up his cheek bone. There were other scars as well, but he still looked nice. He was not only looking at the camera, but a flicker of a smile, repressed on his lips, was very obvious in the way his eyes moved, before he glanced away. It was quite still for a Wizarding photo, like Bellatrix's. Teddy couldn't believe it had narrowly escaped being thrown away.

.

"There were other photos." Percy said, arriving abruptly in the doorway. "Of the initial attack. I did get rid of them." Teddy didn't even bother to respond. Why would anyone think it was okay to get rid of pictures of the father he'd never known? The picture in his hand smiled at him, and glanced at the floor again. He looked shy. Nothing like Teddy. But then, who could be shy, being raised by Andromeda? Maybe he would have been shy if Remus had kept himself alive long enough to do the raising.

.

"Are you alright, Teddy?" Harry asked, shooing Percy out of the kitchen and closing the door again. "Alastor Moody once thrust a picture of my parents on me. It was awful."

.

"No. I love it." Teddy assured him. "I've never seen him look at a camera before. How could you not have wanted a picture of your parents?"

"It was just grim." Harry explained; sitting back at the table and picking up a document that Teddy hadn't looked at himself yet. "I wanted them. It just seemed a bit crass. This is a Ministry file. I don't really think its right for you to have it at eleven, Teddy. The Ministry has never seen Werewolves as human. And during both Wizarding Wars the Werewolf population helped Voldemort."

"I know. I'm not expecting a Ministry report to have anything nice to say. Why didn't you want a photo of your mum and dad?"

"Because they were dead and surrounded by all their friends who had all died as well. I guess I was used to Muggle photo's at the time, so seeing them all so alive, and knowing they'd all died afterwards. It seemed like a morbid thing."

"Well I like this." Teddy said. "I love it. But my dad was a bit of a jerk, so I guess you had more reason to be teary about it."

"Your dad wasn't a jerk." Harry said, earnestly. He always defended Remus to Teddy, but his arguments were weak.

"He was a jerk of a dad." Teddy shrugged. "And a jerk of a husband. He wasn't that great with you, either. Where was he when you were growing up with your horrible Muggle relatives?"

"He was great." Harry said, earnest and firm. Teddy tried not to smile at his Godfathers attempt at fierce. "And he loved you so much, and died to keep you safe."

"I'd rather he'd lived to keep me safe." Teddy said, wondering if he actually did. The picture in his hand had just smiled again, and glanced away. It made him feel slightly guilty. "He looks alright in this." He added. "I wondered what he looked like."

"You've got pictures." Harry said. He got up and left the room.

.

"…This is it." He said, passing Teddy yet another picture. "I can't remember all their names now, but they pretty much all died horribly, fighting Voldemort. "Your dad's there, see?" Which he was, again. This picture was better than any he'd ever seen before, although not as good as what he now had in his hand

"And Sirius." Teddy said, pointing out his cousin. "Next to your dad. Had they rowed?"

"They had no idea." Harry said.

"About what?" Teddy asked, puzzled.

"That Peter Pettigrew was going to betray them." Harry said. "isn't that what you meant?"

"No. They were supposed to be 'The Marauders'. Peter's cuddled up between your Mum and Dad, Sirius is at James's side. Why is my dad over the other side of the room looking like someone made him drink Buberpus? Or did he just always look like that? He's almost cracked a smile for the Ministry photographer?"

"Your dad was really nice.. _So_ nice." Harry said, valiantly. "He was _so_ happy when you were born."

"That is just _so unlikely."_ Teddy pointed out. "He didn't want to know us. He didn't even want to get married. Cissy said."

"Cissy didn't know Remus at all." Harry said, sounding rather too bothered.

"My mother bullied him into it." Teddy glanced at the picture in his hand again. Harry was silent enough to make Teddy sigh. It was just depressing when Harry didn't even _try_ to defend Remus. The picture smiled its slight smile again. "He had cool clothes." He added. Harry didn't say anything, looking at the picture as well.

.

"Who had cool clothes?" Ginny asked, from the doorway.

"Who do you think?" Teddy asked. "My wonderful father." He held up the photo and Ginny pushed herself away from the frame and came over to look at it.

"He wasn't bad looking, your dad." She said, in her inappropriate way. "We all fancied him."

"No, you didn't." Harry said, joyously shocked. Ginny noticed and grinned at him.

"Hell, yes!" She said. "When he was teaching Dark Arts? To be fair he was about a hundred years younger than any of the other teachers, but he was also utterly cool. We all fancied the pants off him. Hermione had the biggest crush ever on Professor Lupin."

"Great." Teddy said. "So he was a dodgy teacher as well."

"No, he was a brilliant teacher." Ginny assured him. "We were only about thirteen."

"Tiny." Teddy said, sarcastically.

"I was thirteen." Harry pointed out. "You must have been twelve."

"You're the youngest in your year." Ginny scoffed. "I do remember being quite worried that he'd decide to marry Hermione, and she was only thirteen."

"Girls are weird." Teddy said, pityingly. He looked at the photo again and the one Harry had brought over. "Can we copy this with the gemino spell?" He asked, looking at Sirius's familiar face. "I wonder what they had rowed about."


	13. The Girls on The Train

**Ch.13**

.

"You." Muggle Marks said at the station, sporting a grin that took up half his face. "Are so mental. My mum has not shut up about you all holidays. What the hell where you thinking?"  
"What mental-ness did you do?" Harry Dolohov asked, keeping close to Teddy's side, for safeties sake.

"Mark gave me some money and a number to put in a phone, which I did." Teddy explained, leading them all onto the train, and searching for Gabriel in the compartments. "But it went to his mother instead of to him, and apparently even though Muggle shops stay open for visits all night, Muggles themselves do not."

"You're mad." Mark assured him. "But your madness has proved very inspirational to my mum."

"She's painted pictures of me?" Teddy asked, interested. "With blue hair?"

"She's painted pictures. Can't say they're really of you. It's more what she thinks it might be like inside your head."

"How would a Muggle know what it's like inside my head?" Teddy scoffed, finding Gabriel and leading them all into the compartment, ignoring two girls who'd already taken the window seats.

"Please don't say stuff like that." Harry Dolohov muttered nervously. "Muggles are just like Wizards without magic."

"So how are they peeping into minds without Occlumancy?"

"She can't see in your head." Mark assured him. "Really, she's just being mum-ish, worrying about someone my age being out of the house and making random phone calls at two in the morning. But she can't bear to admit that to herself, so it's got her all 'inspired'."

"So really she's painting what's in her head? That's a shame." Teddy sighed, looking over at Gabriel who was big and burly, even with his arms and legs crossed and his focus aimed at his own feet.

.

"Good Christmas, Goyle?" He asked. Gabriel nodded, making his golden curls bounce slightly. Mark called him Goldilocks, which sounded funny even though it meant something more to Muggles. He called Teddy 'Gonzo', and he hadn't bothered to ask Harry what that meant. "Muggle Mark." He scoffed, aloud. Mark gave him a look, raising one of his girly eyebrows into his pretty red hair.

.

"You're worse than them." Mark assured him, gesturing the two Death Eater sons.

"I'm a Black really." Teddy pointed out. "I can't help myself. Just like you can't help being a Muggle."  
"I'm not a Muggle. I'm a wizard." Muggle Mark said, with an air of tired patience.

"Of course you are." Teddy scoffed.

.

"Excuse me." One of the girls by the window said. "But what do you mean, you're a Black? Do you realize who the 'Black's' were?"

"Sirius Black was a member of the Order or The Phoenix and a hero." Gabriel said. "And Regulus Black gave his life to help defeat Voldemort."

"And well done saying Voldemort without flinching." Teddy told him. He was quite surprised at Gabriel, who usually didn't talk at all and definitely not about the Dark Lord. That was loyalty, and Teddy realized and appreciated it.

"Well those two were are like huge exceptions." The girl told them. "The Blacks were some of the darkest wizards of all time. Cygnus Black…"

"Is my Great Granddad." Teddy interrupted her with a gleaming smile. The girl actually looked alarmed.

"Bellatrix…" The other girl began.

"Great Aunt." Teddy said. "And, to clarify, she was my 'Great-Aunt' and not a 'great' 'aunt' by any stretch of the imagination."

"Why are you saying that?" The first girl said. "All the Blacks are dead."

"No they're not. My grandmother was alive last I checked." Teddy said.

"That is not funny." The other girl said, angrily. Only Teddy though it was funny. His friends all looked scared to death.

"They're all dead and I can prove you're lying!" The other girl jumped out of her seat and climbed on it to reach her trunk.

.

"Did you read it in a book, Muggle?" Teddy asked. He heard Harry Dolohov's sharp intake of breath and saw Gabriel's round face tighten.

"Do you know how offensive you're being?" The girl asked him, calmly.

"Yes." Teddy assured her. "I know how offensive I'm being. Do you know how offensive you are being?"

"Do I what?" She spat, hands on hips. Teddy smiled at her.

"Do you know how offensive you're being? I knew you were a Muggle." He said. "Because you smell like one."

... *

Harry and Ginny were both in the Heads office already. Maybe they'd both come again because they were glad of some time away from their noisy children. Maybe it was their joint anger.

.

"What have I done wrong?" Teddy asked, ignoring the three on one glaring.

"You know perfectly well what you've done wrong!" Ginny shouted, actually shouted, into the silent office. Teddy wondered if this would affect the headmistress's opinion of her as a suitable teacher. "I am so bloody ashamed of you, Teddy!"

"You're not my mother to be ashamed of me." Teddy pointed out. "You tell me what you think I've done wrong and I'll tell you why I did it."

"I'm the closest thing you've got to a mum!" Ginny yelled. "Andromeda is filling your head with this filth!"

"Andromeda is a bigger Muggle-lover than you are." Teddy pointed out. "She married a Muggle. I bet you haven't even kissed a…"

.

"Do you have any idea how offensive that term is?" Harry interrupted him. "Who have you even heard using that?"  
"Muggle-Lover?" Teddy asked. "I may have coined it myself. 'One who loves Muggles'? Like sun-lover or book-lover. Aren't _you_ being offensive to suggest there's something offensive about loving Muggles?"

.

"I am this close to expelling him." McGonagall said. Teddy closed his mouth, looking round at her in shocked surprise.

Teddy liked arguments. Arguing was the only time you could tell Andromeda was really alive and it always got Harry and Ginny's attention off each other or their own children, as the current situation so totally proved.

But getting expelled from Hogwarts would be very bad.

.

"You can't expel me." He said, confidently. "She was rude to me too. And I didn't hex her or anything. I didn't even raise my voice."

"What you did was worse than hexing." Ginny said. "And you were as bad with that Muggle born boy in the first term."

"Mark is my friend." Teddy said. "And I was talking to him on the train when that girl started listening to our private conversation which she interrupted so she could insult my family. If she'd half a brain, she'd realize I was only saying those things to make a point about how unpleasant it feel to be judged on what you are rather than who you are, and it's not nice to condemn people you don't know, who other people might know and care about."

"There people being Cygnus Black and Bellatrix Lestrange?" Harry said, quietly.

"That's not the point." Teddy replied.

"No. It's not." Ginny agreed, angrily. "The point is you are getting these hateful ideas from somewhere and if it isn't from Andromeda and Cissy it's from those boys in your dorm!"

"Of course it is." Teddy sighed, voice heavy with sarcasm.

.

"Expel him." Ginny said, coldly.

"_What_!?" Teddy exploded.

"Not you." Harry said. "The Dolohov boy." He sighed, thoughtfully. "Has he actually done anything wrong?" He asked. "That you know of, Minerva?"

"Not that I can prove. Other students complain about him. But this attitude on Teddy has come from somewhere." McGonagall pointed out, wearily.

"You should hate him, Teddy!" Ginny said. "Why are you even talking to him? There are so many nice children here! Put him in Slytherin, Minerva."

"The whole of Teddy's dormitory is full of Death Eaters." Harry said, uneasily. "Teddy was in the wrong. I think you should move Teddy. You can't expel Dolohov until he's actually caught does something wrong."

"It is my decision, Harry." The Headmistress pointed out. "But yes, this seems sensible."

"No, you can't _move me_." Teddy said, unable to hide his alarm. "They're my friends. And that was my fathers' room. It was their room, and Harry's room. I'm meant to be in there."  
"No, you're not." Harry assured him. "When that room is full of the sons of Death Eaters and you think it's funny to insult Muggle-born students, you most definitely are not meant to be in there."

"Andromeda won't let you do this." Teddy said, angrily.

"Yes, she will." Harry snapped. "That is your Head Mistresses decision."

**AN: Teddy is nice! Wrong but nice. Teddy has lost both his parents and been brought up in the aftermarth of the war, the people he cares most about having fought on both sides (Harry, Andromeda)(Draco and Cissy) and I wanted to convey that he is confused about this. Also he's never had the opportunity to grow to love his parents and maybe feels angry at them for not being with him. ****And he is still eleven so he has time to grow and realize that he is not always right. Most of all he has to realize that he wants that Resurrection Stone, work out how to get hold of it, and use it to call up the ghosts of the dead he most wants to speak to.  
**

**Please please review. Your feedback means a lot :)  
**


	14. Your True Colours

**Ch.14**

"_Harry_!" Harry Dolohov was sitting on his bed and stared at the wild black haired boy in front of him, blankly.

Teddy had been gone for over an hour. His Godparents had once again been summoned to the school and although Teddy always seemed convinced trouble would roll off him, like water off a duck, Harry Dolohov was expecting the worst.

And the worst he was expecting was for Teddy to be moved to a different dorm, away from him, Gabriel and Emanuel. Mostly him, obviously. But he was expecting Teddy to show up and announce that he'd been moved to another room in person. Not some random student telling them; or this boy coming to take over his bed before Teddy had even moved his own personal stuff.

Harry studied the black haired boy in silence. He didn't even know who he was, and he thought he knew everyone in their year. He was pale but flushed, eyes bright, hair long, and windswept as if he'd flung himself across half the castle.

"What do you want?" Harry asked, calmly getting off his bed and making sure his wand was still in reach on the nightstand.

"_Harry_!" The newcomer yelled again, but Harry was sure he didn't know him.

"What?" He asked. "Is It Teddy?" He glanced at the robes on the off chance that this was some other ho use student running a message for Teddy,

There was a long pause before the other boy closed his mouth. He frowned, stalked over to the mirror that hung by Gabriel's bed and stared in it for a long time.

"…Teddy?" Harry muttered, doubtfully. His eyes flicked over the thick black hair that hid the back of his neck and reached the collar of his school robes, and the unfamiliar angular face, studying itself in the mirror with heavy lidded silver eyes.

"I lost my blue hair." Teddy said, finally.

"And your face." Harry assured him. "But mostly you threw me by not calling me 'Harry Dolohov'."

"Well, I was distracted." Teddy said. He even sounded slightly different. He came back and dumped himself on Harry's bed, where Harry eyed him uncertainly. "Anyway, you're 'Harry' now. I'm not talking to _him_ again. I have to send an owl to my Grandmother, right now."

"I thought they were going to move you." Harry admitted.

"Oh they have." Teddy assured him. It was weird hearing him talk, when he suddenly looked like a completely different person. "I mean they're _trying_ to… Come on. Let's go to the Owlery. I'm not letting them do this."

The new dorm-mate looked scared witless. He had good reason to be, as he'd just been moved to the dormitory of Antonin Dolohov's son. And Marcus Parkinson and Geoffrey Goyle's grandsons.

The three Death Eater boys were all standing, arms folded across their chests, expressions vastly more foreboding than they'd ever appeared before. Mark Evans, their Muggle-born dorm-mate also looked as fierce as someone who looks like a pretty girl could.

Teddy Lupin, whose bed the new dorm-mate was taking, was standing with them as well. The only reason he knew this was Teddy Lupin was because _everybody_ knew. The blue hair, green freckles and sparkling purple eyes had vanished. The ring-leader of the dorm was standing in what looked frighteningly like his true colors. Pale skin, black hair and distinctive silver eyes, he looked every inch The Great Grandson of Cygnus Black.

The new dorm-mate looked at them in silence, turned around, and shoved his trunk back onto the stairwell. Harry Dolohov let his breath out in a loud rush. "For God's sake, Teddy." He said. "This is going to get us killed."

"No, it's not." Teddy said, silver eyes flashing furiously. "I am not leaving this dorm. Man up, you wimp. Gabriel's not wetting his knickers."

"What do you think is going to happen?" Harry said, forsaking any attempt at calm. "Teddy. We're first years. We don't choose. We do what we're told, or we pay!"

"And no one is going to pay more than you?" Teddy demanded. "Go then. Go hide somewhere! Next time you need me to stand up for you, just call, Harry. I'll be by your side, you waste of space."

Harry Dolohov pressed his hands over his face, making an angry hissing sound. "Fine." He said. "Fine. You remember I did this for you, when I'm expelled." He said. "And Gabriel too."

"Man up." Teddy said again, picking up his wand as they heard feet on the stairs.

The Gryffindor Prefects barged into the room with their wands brandished. "You are in so much trouble boys." Adam Finnigan told them. "Teddy, go to your dormitory. Now."

"This is my dormitory." Teddy said, loudly. And then he smiled.

Adam Finnegan was seventeen, a Beater on the Gryffindor Quidditch team who was not known for his placid temperament. He was nearly two foot taller than Teddy Lupin and was flanked by his brother, Patrick, and his girlfriend, Calypso Bones.

"Your _new_ dormitory." Calypso said. "Professor Longbottom's on his way."

"Well now we're scared." Gabriel said and Teddy laughed.

"Put your wand _down_." Adam told him.

"No." Teddy said. "Make me.

"_Sourgify_!" He added, as soon as the Prefect opened his mouth; and the small room erupted in a violent explosion of spells and screams.


	15. Andromeda Black

Andromeda Black; tall, regal and probably terrified of being outside her own Front Room, stood in the Headmistress's office, glaring at all of them.

"I should be expelling him." Professor McGonagall told her angrily. "Who will pay for the damage?"

"I will pay for the damage." Andromeda said. "If you are seriously telling me that you cannot reverse the damage from an eleven year olds wand-work."

"We'll pay for the damage." Harry said, with a sigh. "That is insignificant. I want to know _why_ this has happened. _Again_."

"We know why." Ginny hissed, angrily. "And why does he think its fine to be friends with these boys? And where has he learnt dark magic?"

"Your accusations are unhelpful." Andromeda informed her, with a glare.

"Well, I don't see you leaping to deny it!" Ginny said. "What the hell have you been teaching him?"

"To be a decent human being." Teddy snapped.

"Silence!" McGonegal screeched. "Not a word from you!"

"Do what you're told." Harry added. "We are all very unhappy with your behavior."

"You did worse." Teddy said, bitterly.

"Finally, I think that is actually untrue." Harry told him. "I honestly don't think I did."

"I bet The Marauders did." Teddy said.

"_Shut up, Teddy_." Andromeda warned him, sharply. "Now. Have your say, Minerva.

"Andromeda." The Headmistress said, with a scowl. "This is an ongoing problem, which is why you have been summoned here. I suggest _you_ have your say."

"If you wish." Andromeda agreed. "Teddy is a generally likeable, gifted and well-behaved boy. While I do not know why he keeps picking fights with Muggle-born Witches and Wizards, if I was in your position, Minerva, I would perhaps see he serves detention with a Muggle-born Wizard, that he might realise the deeper common humanity of all people regardless of race, class, blood or gender. And I would see he attend Muggle Studies classes."

"And expel Dolohov and the other boys." Ginny added.

"You will attend Muggle Studies." Minerva informed Teddy. "And you will make up the extra work in your free time, when you will serve detention with me. And you _will_ swap Dormitories."

.

Teddy moved into the second year boys dorm. He attended Muggle Studies with the second year boys on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, but the rest of the time he still did everything with Harry, Mark and Gabriel.

It was an utterly rubbish punishment. It just resulted in him having twice as many friends, and learning loads of extra charms and transfigurations that the second years practiced in the evenings.

It even worked out quite well for Harry and Gabriel, who got much less bullied, as they too became friends with Teddy's new older dorm-mates. By the end of Teddy's first year at Hogwarts he had a splendid gang of Gryffindor's, who's misbehavior and loyalty to him, he was sure, could one day rival The Marauders.


	16. Lotus

_Dear Teddy,_

_Owing to your utterly reprehensible behaviour towards your Muggle-born peers I have arranged for you to spend the summer holidays with Muggles. I don't doubt I shall miss you vastly more than you me, but it is for your own good._

_Much love,_

_Your Grandmother._

"My Grandmother's sending me to stay with Muggles!" Teddy exclaimed, in outrage. "All summer! What the hell!?"

"You love Muggles, _remember_, Teddy." Gabriel said, elbowing him with a grin.

"They might cut out my brain in search of my magic!" Teddy wailed.

"I will send you to McGonegall _again,_ Lupin." The prefect, Calypso Bones warned him.

"Maybe it's your Tonk's relatives." Mark suggested. "Do you ever see them?"

"No. Nor the Lupin's." Teddy said, with a sigh. "I assume the Lupins are Muggles."

"Or Werewolves." Harry pointed out. "With the surname 'Lupin' and calling their son 'Remus'. They're both Wolf names. Maybe they're a family of Werewolves?"

"Oh, dear _God_!" Teddy cried. "My Grandmother is sending me to stay with Muggle Werewolves!"

"_Lupin!"_ Calypso yelled at him. "Pack it in!"

"If I don't get eaten, or dissected, it will be ace." Teddy pointed out. "Or, I might get bitten and come back a Werewolf too. That might be why they want me to stay with them! So they can make me a _Lupus_ Lupin!"

.

But the Lupins did not want Teddy for a Werewolf. Andromeda had arranged something completely unexpected. Teddy was to stay with Muggle Mark, for the entire summer.

Harry Dolohov, who was Teddy's best friend was utterly jealous, but as Teddy pointed out, there wasn't a hope in Hell of Harry and Ginny agreeing to let them spend time together.

.

So Harry Dolohov, Gabriel Goyle and the rest of Teddy's gang were abandoned at the station and Muggle Mark's Muggle Parents took Teddy and Mark off and away in their Muggle car. They had to tie Mark's trunk onto the roof because Teddy's filled the boot and they didn't know how to use a basic expansion spell, or _any_ spells at all.

.

Teddy was not supposed to do magic out of school, but it was too irresistible. Muggle Mark's parents were just _too_ impressed.

Teddy was, himself, very impressed with Muggle Mark's house, although it was not nearly as Muggle-ish as he had hoped.

Mark lived in a little seaside town, and it looked a lot like any normal wizard's house. Teddy had really wanted to see wall to wall carpet, electric fires and a television, but Mark's home was all painted funny colours, with lots of rugs and hundreds, upon hundreds, of beautiful paintings.

.

Teddy got some charms books owled to him, and learnt the NEWT's level spells to enchant portraits.

Lotus, Marks mother, repaid this favour by painting a six foot canvas of Teddy, casting a ring of fire into the sandy beach at midnight.

His hair a weird combination of the long black and the short blue that where his favourite personifications. It was such a cool picture that Teddy desperately wanted to keep it, but Lotus wouldn't give it away. She spent most of the summer holidays painting her son and Teddy, casting spells on the beach.

.

At first just owl's came, warning Teddy and Mark about using magic outside of school. Lotus didn't care and Mark's father didn't know, because they burnt all the messages before he came home from work. Lotus painted them burning the messages, while the sparks flew and the owls sat around the fire, watching disapprovingly.

Then Teddy used his magic to make the sparks in the painting fly and the flames lick the burning parchments.

More owls came, and then Professor Longbottom arrived, to tell them if one more spell was cast they would both have their wands conviscated, until the start of term.

Lotus made Professor Longbottom a cup of Muggle tea and showed him her paintings.

Mark sighed heavily, and pleaded with Teddy to sneak off to the beach, but Teddy watched, deeply impressed, as Lotus charmed Professor Longbottom without using any magic at all.

.

Muggle Lotus was the most perfect mother anywhere.

She let Teddy and Mark do whatever they wanted. She gave them loads of money, stuck up for them when her husband tried to tell them off, and spent her days taking them to the Muggle cinema and zoo; feeding them on sweets and takeaways and painting awesome pictures of them swirling magic around their heads and looking utterly cool.

Teddy didn't want her for a mother, because she was also young and pretty; he wanted to marry her. To do this he would have to get rid of Mark's father. He spent a good deal of the summer plotting how best to do this, preferably in the nicest way possible.

Marl's father, Eric, was a reasonable fellow. He was not keen on letting the boys camp out alone on the beach at night, nor sail out of sight of land in Lotus's leaky ramshackle boat. He very kindly let Teddy and Mark accompany him to the Vets' Practice where he worked, but refused to let Teddy administer injections or anaesthetic gas, which he explained would be unethical. Despite that minor setback, it was the very best holidays ever, and Teddy returned to school suntanned and certain his destiny was to not just embrace Muggle-ness but to marry a Muggle, if he could just think of a 'not-to-awful' way to get rid of Mark's father.

.

Wisely he did not share this plan with Mark, although he confessed all to Harry, who he'd forgotten to write to, and was as clingy as ever. Harry thought the plan was a bad one, and advised Teddy as such. But he was more than happy to help Teddy plot a suitably humane demise for Eric and a 'how-to' plan to make their friends mother fall in-love with her son's twelve year old friend.

.

September past happily. October half term he spent with Harry and Ginny, where James followed Teddy everywhere and was very annoying. Lily-Luna was supposed to be really clever but she only ever said 'no!' in a loud screechy voice, and threw herself on the floor a lot. And who knew what Albus was like? Teddy wasn't quite sure that he, or anyone in the house, had spoken a single word to Albus for the whole week.


	17. Professor McKinnon

Ginny came back with him to Hogwarts after the half term break, to teach and probably to get away from the chaos at home. She was not the only new teacher. Haggrid, the Care of Magical Creatures Professor had been attacked by some of the magical creatures and was in St. Mungo's.

Teddy was not surprised.

He was surprised only that this hadn't happened sooner. Haggrid liked to make pets of animals never meant to be loved.

The new Magical Creatures Professor, Professor McKinnon, was slim and considerably smaller than Haggrid. Sadly he looked quite the opposite of the funny half-giant in many ways. He was rather serious and very well-spoken. From his first impression in the Great Hall, Teddy was not sure he was going to like him, one bit.

.

Unsurprisingly, in Teddy's opinion, Ginny was a rubbish Defense Against the Dark Art's teacher. She was very bossy and embarrassed him constantly. She also gave them flying lessons, which Teddy didn't need, but went to, just to be helpful and so he could laugh hysterically at Muggle Mark's first ever attempts to control a broom.

~o0o~

"Your Godmother is good enough to play professionally." Gabriel told Teddy as they waited in the clearing for their first Magical Creatures lesson with the new teacher. Professor McKinnon wasn't living in Haggrids hut, and was no where in sight.

"...She thought Mark was Teddy's girlfriend!" Harry giggled.

"Which shows only too well just how much interest she takes in my life." Teddy pointed out. "I stayed with Mark for the entire summer. It's mortifying having her here. She should be at home, looking after her babies."

"My mum would disown you, if she heard you spouting that sexist rubbish." Mark assured him.

"She'd have to own him first." Harry pointed out, considerately.

"And she shall never hear me say it." Teddy concluded quickly as Professor McKinnon strolled into the clearing, frowning at them for talking. Silently he conjouring a fallen tree into a desk, some rather artful wand work, Teddy noted, and studied them, over it.

"Pair up." McKinnon commanded, frowning at his assembled students. "A foot of parchment on your favourite magical creature, and what makes it such."

"...Magical Creatures is supposed to be a practical lesson." Mark griped, because he was useless at keeping quiet in lessons.

"Haggrid didn't make us write." Gabriel agreed, uneasily. Teddy thrust his hand into the air. McKinnon frowned at him.

"Black-haired boy," he said. Teddy caught a strand of his longish hair to check before he spoke.

"How are we meant to do that in pairs?" He asked. "My favourite or his favourite magica creature, sir?"

"I'll be interested to see what you decide." McKinnon said, before opening a book and starting to read it, at the open air desk.

"...Ask a question." Teddy hissed at Mark. "I'll give you five knuts." Mark sighed at him, before thrusting his hand into the air.

"Red-haired girl," McKinnon said.

There was a burst of stifled giggling.

"I'm not a girl, sir." Mark said, frostily. "Does it have to be an animal we've already studied?"

"No," McKinnon said, looking over the smirking students without apologising at the red-haired and now red-cheeked boy.

"...So worth it," Teddy mouthed over at him. Mark rolled his eyes and took the parchment off Gabriel, to start writing.

Teddy settled next to Harry, seeing he'd already put their names at the top of the page and started to write about water sprites.

.

"Water Sprites are totally gay." Teddy informed him, quietly. "What about Thestrals and Dragons?"

"I like water sprites." Harry said, with a shrug. "I'll do six inches then you can write about Dragons."

"Gah. You _really_ like Water Sprites, don't you?" Teddy sighed, sinking down onto the grass, and yanking up a handful to toss at Mark and Gabriel. Harry smiled a little smile and carried on writing about Water Sprites. Teddy watched him, rather amused, because Harry never really dared to give an opinion on anything.

.

It was a lovely day to be outside. The sun was already warm and there wasn't a trace of a breeze. Teddy was distracted from a rather nice day dream about a campfire on the beach with Muggle Lotus, when the teacher's shadow fell over him.

"We're taking turns, sir." He said, at once. "Did you ask me a question?"

"No." McKinnon said with a rather forced smile. "You're Teddy Lupin? I knew your father. He was a very likeable man."

"Oh." Teddy said, mostly relieved that he wasn't in trouble. "He died when I was a baby."

"I know." Professor McKinnon said, looking over him rather too closely. Teddy looked at the teacher, wondering if he was the same age as Remus would have been, because he looked rather old. And then something jumped into his memory and he looked up at the teacher in surprise.

"Did you work for the Ministry?" He asked, thinking about the file that his Uncle Percy had given him the previous Christmas.

"Yes, that's right." Professor McKinnon nodded. "As your Headmistress told you, at the beginning of term."

"Oh yes, of course she did." Teddy said. Nobody ever listened to those speeches. "Did you actually _know_ my father, professor?" He added.

"Yes." McKinnon said. "I considered him a good friend."

"Really?" Teddy asked, doubtfully. "Didn't you work in Werewolf control, or something?"

"I worked in the Regulation of Dangerous Creatures, for eight years." McKinnon said. "But I worked in the law courts after the second fall of Voldemort, for more than a decade… As your Headmistress said, Lupin."

"Of course, sir." Teddy agreed. McKinnon nodded.

"It's nice to see you here, Lupin." He said. "I see you are a very gifted student."

"Thank you, sir..." Teddy said, watching until he stopped at another table before turning back to Harry Dolohov who flashed raised eyebrows at him.

~o0o~

"It's freaky." Teddy said. "I'll tell you why…" He paused, checking the teacher was distracted before leaning over, pretending to be reading Harry's thoughts on Water Sprites. "…Last Christmas, my Uncle Percy gave me my dad's old Ministry Werewolf File. He said he rescued it from the bin, when '_McKinnon_ retired'. _That_ McKinnon."

"That is freaky." Harry agreed. "And he said he was friends with your dad?"

"Yes. And my dad's life is all a bit of a mystery." Teddy reminded him. "He vanished after school, showed up to look after Sirius Black when he was messed up from Azkaban. Then he spent a year messing me and my mum around, and then died. I don't know what he did for the rest of the time."  
"But he was mates with Professor McKinnon." Harry muttered back, thoughtfully. Teddy nodded, studying his teacher with renewed interest.

"...Only _not_." He added, turning back to Harry. "Because McKinnon _worked_ in the Department for the Regulation of Dangerous Creatures, _Werewolves._ So my dad wasn't his buddy. He was one of the Dangerous creatures McKinnon was employed to regulate."

"McKinnon did have a file on him." Harry nodded, following.

"Yeah. That's fair enough." Teddy agreed. "But then Voldemort was defeated by Harry, my parents were killed and McKinnon went to work in the Ministry Courts. He just said he worked there for more than a decade. So why did he still have my dad's file, a decade later, to dump in his bin?"

"_Oh!_" Harry agreed. "Yeah! That _is_ weird... Although maybe he had loads of stuff and it all went in the bin, but Percy looked that out specially, for you."

"It was an official file. And my dad had been dead for years. Shouldn't it have been binned years before?"

"But it wasn't, Teddy… because they were friends, maybe?" Harry suggested uncertainly. They both turned to look more closely at their new teacher. "Maybe he kept it, because he was your dad's friend." Teddy nodded, but he didn't say anything else, watching McKinnon like a hawk for any further clues that this could be true. Someone who actually knew his father, and was alive. Now this was fascinating.


	18. Intentions and Ownership

McKinnon's lessons improved dramatically after the first. Although much more of a 'real' teacher than Hagrid had been, he made the effort to teach his classes about things that interested them, choosing the Magical Creatures they had chosen to write about, for their studies.

Just before Christmas he took the entire class into the Forbidden Forest to feed the Thestrals, which were Teddy's favourite magical beast, and then on to visit a torrent, in the depths of the forest, where waterfalls tumbled and gushed over cliffy ledges, and water sprites, Harry's favourite, inhabited the rocky pools.

.

Teddy was inordinately impressed.

It was after classes the same day that he decided to find McKinnon, and ask him about Remus' photos.

He fetched them from his dorm and headed up to the teacher's lounge, but McKinnon wasn't there. Nor was he in his classroom.

Teddy eventually tracked him down, in his private quarters, where students weren't really supposed to go. None the less, Teddy knocked firmly on McKinnon's door and a moment later the Magical Creature's professor appeared.

"I'm sorry to bother you, in your private rooms, Professor." Teddy stated, catching his breath. "But I have been looking for you for more than an hour."

"Whatever's wrong, Lupin?" McKinnon said, even more concerned. Teddy felt his hair changing colour.

"Nothing." He said, clearing his throat. "Nothing at all. I wanted to say that I really liked your lesson today."

"Oh... Splendid." McKinnon said, sounding rather surprised. "You looked so serious, you had me expecting a disaster."

"I just wanted to say it was good and… and, did you really know my father, and are you the 'McKinnon' that kept a file on him, because he was a Werewolf? The file that had these photos in." Teddy took them out of his pocket and thrust them forward.

"Right." McKinnon said. He paused, considering this for a moment before raising his arm and offering Teddy entrance to the room.

.

Teddy had never been in a teacher's room before. McKinnon's was rather grand. He noticed the excess of red and gold velvet at once, there was nothing in the room that didn't look less than a hundred years old, all polished and gleaming. A cut glass decanter and tumbler was set out on a table along with a book written in Latin.

McKinnon waited until they were both seated before studying the photos. "Do you mind me asking how you came by these?" He said, politely.

"They were in your file. You threw it away when you retired." Teddy said, as it occurred to him for the first time that Percy probably shouldn't have been rooting through McKinnon's bin.

"Indeed. I know that much." McKinnon assured him. He looked down at the photo of Teddy's grown-up father again. "I'm glad they came into your possession."

"So, he was actually your friend, as well?" Teddy clarified. "Sir?"

"Yes, indeed. A good friend." McKinnon said, distracted by the photo again. "…I shouldn't have thrown it away." He added.

"It's the nicest picture I've got of him." Teddy said, because he had no intention of giving it back. "It's the only time I've ever seen him smile."

"That's not a smile." McKinnon said, with a hint of amusement. "He smiled alot. He just hated photos."

"I've only got three other photos of him." Teddy added. He got them out of his pocket now. "That's the Order of the Phoenix. You're not in it, are you?"

"No." McKinnon said, turning it to see. "But I knew most of them and I supported their aims. We were all working in our own ways. That's my sister, Marlene." He pointed out a non-descript fair-haired woman.

"My dad looks like he's had a row with all his mates." Teddy pointed out.

"Yes. He had." McKinnon said, looking as well.

"About what?" Teddy asked, keenly enough to make McKinnon look up at him.

"I'm not sure." He said. "Before our time."

"So you weren't friends with The Marauders at school?" Teddy asked, in surprise. "You were a Gryffindor though, weren't you?"

"Yes. I'm younger than your father, Teddy." The professor assured him, sounding faintly amused.

"Did you keep his file because you were friends?" Teddy asked, quickly.

But McKinnon shook his head, at once. He frowned, considering not Teddy's disappointment but his own explanation.

"...I assume you know about Werewolves Laws." He said, considering Teddy carefully. "You know your father worked tirelessly to bring the British Werewolf population under control during the wars; thankless and frustrating work."

"Wasn't he trying to stop them joining Voldemort?"

"They had joined Voldemort, almost to a head. The werewolves committed frightening atrocities in Voldemort's name, believing they would get better treatement for themselves, once he came to power. The Ministry responded with brutal werewolf laws. I took the file The Ministry kept on your father, to protect him for those laws."

"You were hiding him?" Teddy asked, with a thrill of excitement. "From The Ministry itself?" McKinnon smiled drily.

"Indeed." He said. "It was the least I could do. Remus was fearless and dedicated."

"And he was your friend." Teddy pointed out.

"Well, yes." McKinnon agreed. "Although that wasn't why I did it. We weren't very friendly at that time. We got on, well enough."

"But then you got _really_ friendly, afterwards? Did you take that photo? Is he smiling at you?"

"I did take that photo." McKinnon nodded. "He hated photo's. You're doing quite well to have collected all these, I suspect."

"That's his wedding photo." Teddy added, putting it down as well. "Did you know my mother? She worked in the Auror office."

"Yes. Andromeda's daughter. Not well. Terribly sad, Teddy. So many people lost their lives, but you'd be hard pressed to find a more unjust tale than yours."

"And this is him at school, with The Marauders." Teddy hurried on, putting the last photo down, of his dad embracing Sirius, after Gryffindor had won the House Cup. "His friends at school; James Potter, Harry's father, and Sirius Black, who's my cousin, and Peter Pettigrew and Lily Evans. I'd like to play Quidditch but there isn't room on the team yet. I wish my dad had."

"Your father was a good flier." McKinnon told him, at once. "Very good. He was just frequently ill, because of what he was. His school friends meant an awful lot to him."

"The Marauders ruled the school." Teddy said before checking his professor's expression.

"Yes, I believe they did." McKinnon said, sounding very teacher-ish.

"And they had a map, which showed all the secret passages and everyone's location in the school."

"Yes, I know… Where is it?" McKinnon asked. "It took you more than an hour to find me, so I'm assuming it's not in your possession."

"No. Harry's got it." Teddy said, considering this in a new light, suddenly. "...There's no way he'd let me have it."

"I should think not." McKinnon said, sounding even more like a teacher.

"James Potter was a genius." Teddy added. "I don't know how old he was, when he made it."

"As I understood it, I don't believe James did make it." McKinnon said. He smiled at Teddy's wide-eyed expression.

"My dad _made _the Marauders Map?!" He demanded.

"As he told it to me, it was a team effort." McKinnon offered. "But he was a very modest man, Lupin. I believe he did make the map, putting the secret passages on it and the original enchantments, so it could track people. Sirius Black added the spell to collect people as they entered the map's geographic area, and I'm guessing Peter and James put the password on it, maybe? And the spell to insult people, although that might have been Sirius's work. It certainly doesn't strike me as your father's style."

"Insulting people? It said Severus Snape had a big nose and greasy hair, when he was my godfather's Potion's Master."

"Did it?" McKinnon said. "It had some excessively rude things to say to me, as I recall."

"You said that you didn't know the Marauders." Teddy reminded him, slightly confused. "Apart from my dad, and he liked you."

"The spell activates if someone tries to reveal the map without using the password. The map contains nothing of the makers souls, which would make it dark dark magic, would it now, Lupin? The insults it produces are nothing more than a product of the readers own fears... It may have been Sirius's work, thinking about it. That smacks of his style."

"He's my second cousin, twice removed." Teddy told him, proudly. "Harry's son is named after him. What was he like?"

"Sirius. I didn't know him." McKinnon said at once.

"If you didn't know him, how do you know it was 'Sirius's style'?" Teddy asked. "To make a wizards own negative beliefs appear as insults on the map?"

"He was a very close friend of your fathers." McKinnon said. "You are aware of that, I assume? That they were good friends?"

"Yes. Although I thought James and Sirius were _best_ friends... Although I have three best friends too, so…"

"Quite." McKinnon agreed. "But James and Peter were murdered, and Sirius was imprisoned for the crime."

"Wrongly imprisoned." Teddy pointed out. "For twelve years. And he was the first person ever to escape from Azkaban." McKinnon nodded.

"Yes." He agreed. "But of course we didn't know that. Everybody believed Sirius was guilty. We found out he was innocent after his death. When I knew your father, we both believed Sirius was guilty. But they had once been close friends and so Remus talked about him sometimes."

"What did he say?" Teddy asked, fascinated. McKinnon noticed and hesitated. "I've never met anyone who knew my father." Teddy added, honestly. "Only my grandmother who hated him and Harry, who only really knew him as a teacher."

"He cared a great deal for Harry." McKinnon said, at once. "But I see what you mean. He was a very private. He lived with Sirius, on and off. Did you know that?"

"Yes. At Grimmauld Place. Harry's house, although really... well, Sirius left his house to Harry, in his will. I really don't know why, because Harry was his own family's sole surviving heir."

"Werewolf's weren't legally allowed to hold property, or gold, at the end of the second war." McKinnon told him. "That was one of the laws The Ministry brought in retaliation to the attacks the Werewolf pack's carried out for Voldemort. It was also one of the statutes Voldemort was offering to revoke."

"Oh... I didn't know that." Teddy said, honestly but rather surprised. "Are you saying you think Sirius might have wanted to leave his house to my dad?"

"It was Remus's home." McKinnon pointed out. "I assume…" He paused, with a smile as if editing his thoughts, carefully.

Teddy waited, letting the silence expand.

"…Harry was a young boy, heavily embroiled in fighting against Voldemort. I assume Sirius didn't plan to die at that time and clearly it never did occur to Harry that Sirius might have expected him to make provision for Remus... Perhaps Sirius considered doing everything he could to protect his Godson his priority."

.

Teddy considered this jumble of different statements as swiftly as he could; sifting for the truth.

.

"…You think Sirius would have assumed Harry would have the decency to make provision for my dad because it was his home and he was penny-less and Sirius' friend?" He clarified. "Sir... You think Sirius might have wanted my dad to have Grimmauld Place?"

"I don't know, at all, what Sirius would have wanted, Lupin." McKinnon assured him, in a manner that sounded a lot like backtracking, to Teddy. "I'm sure he only meant for Harry to have anything he needed." Teddy nodded, eyes alight with possibility.

Surely this was just yet further proof that the Black inheritance shouldn't have just been added to Harry's own vast vaults of gold, but should have stayed within the family, or some of it gone to Teddy's dad.

Maybe Sirius meant for his mum and dad to live in Grimmauld Place and have their baby there, but instead Harry had left unthinkingly left Remus homeless and penniless, with a soon-to-be-wife, angry in-laws and a soon-to-be baby.

"Teddy," McKinnon interupted him, reaching across the table to draw his attention firmly back to reality. "I truely have no idea what Sirius would have wanted for his estate. Without a resurrection stone, no one can know what the dead ever really intended.


	19. The Apothecary Shop

McKinnon didn't talk to Teddy about his dad again, but he did give him vastly preferential treatment, allowing Teddy to care for the creatures he acquired for lessons, which in turn gave him the right to sneak about the school grounds, on the pretence of caring for the animals. Between leading his sprawling gang of friends; searching for secret passages, homework and genuine animal care, Teddy was sure he was as busy as any N.E.W.T. student.

The year past in a flash and before Teddy had time to blink they were back on the Hogwarts Express flying home for the summer holidays.

.

Andromeda was ill.

Something Teddy had been completely oblivious too.

He'd spent the last Summer with Mark, and both half-term breaks with Harry and Ginny.

It came as a terrible shock to find her looking… looking like she was dying.

.

"What are you doing here, Teddy?" She demanded, when she finally noticed him staring at her from the doorway.

She dismissed the healers, with a wave of her gnarled hand, and scowled at him, as he crept over.

"Why aren't you with Harry?" She asked.

"You didn't write." Teddy pointed out. "And this is my home."

"School finished did it." She sighed. Her breath's sounded rasping and horrid. "...Well. ...I don't want you here. ...Nothing worse than watching someone dying. And you'll only upset yourself... more. Much better you get used to being with Harry. Get me my pictures before you leave. I want them all around me."

.

That was all she had said.

Dutifully Teddy had collected the pictures.

He had arranged for his trunk, and himself, to be transported to Harry's.

Then he had gone back in to tell her; but she had been fast asleep.

He hadn't been sure if he should wake her or not.

And so he hadn't.

.

The funeral was a week later.

Teddy watched her being buried, with her photos, of his mum, and his granddad, and a couple someone had added of him.

He didn't quite know where he was meant to be; or what he was meant to say or do. He didn't know who was in charge. And so he just stood there, not even sure what he was thinking, while the service droned on and on, about how happy Andromeda must be, to finally be back with her husband and her daughter.

.

Teddy spent a long time trying not to cry, before becoming so randomly angry with it all, that his hair went scarlet and the rain misted off it like smoke.

But the whole thing went on and on, for so long that after that he felt almost completely fine with it, just a bit numb.

He went home; to his home, with all the people he either didn't know or didn't like, and watched them eating and drinking the last of Andromeda's money, in her parlor, chatting away happily.

.

He found Harry, as heavily mobbed by children as ever, and told him he was going to stay with Mark again, because Andromeda had arranged it. Harry was trying to control James and didn't seem to care much about Andromeda dying.

Teddy thought Ginny was probably glad.

Teddy didn't go to Marks.

It hadn't even been arranged.

He spent the whole weekend all by himself, in the Muggle world, using magic to get a room for the night and food, hopeful that McGonegal would try and expel him for underage magic.

.

On Monday; cold, tired, dirty, he found himself standing in an Apothecary shop, in Knockturn Alley, in the arms of Harry Dolohov.

.

Teddy was not a big hugger, as it went badly against his cool image; but this, this felt like everything he needed. Clutching his best friend, he finally broke down in floods of shameless, uncontrollable tears.

.

Teddy only knew about the Apothecary shop, because Harry had asked him to write to him - not show up -and this was the address he'd given; technically the flat _above_ the shop was the address given, but Harry was working on the till when Teddy had walked in. Once he'd calmed himself down, he accepted a glass of water and sipped it, examining everything in the shop.

.

"No wonder you're never short of potion ingredient." He observed, finding his grin finally.

"You can have whatever you want." Harry offered, recklessly.

"I want to stay the night with you." Teddy told him. "I could make myself look like Gabriel, if your mum would let him stay."

"You can stay." Harry said, at once. "Please stay."

"What about… Your mum?" Teddy pointed out, quietly, eyes on the low beamed ceiling. Harry paused, considering this for a considerable time, before he abruptly started to measure wares again.

"...Well. ...it's not like… it's not like she's very alive." He explained, briskly. "...so. ...so, I imagine she'll be fine with it."

Teddy blinked at him.

Harry carried on measuring, filling tiny twists of paper with sparkly red powder.

"…_What?"_ Teddy asked, finally.

"It's not like…" Harry sighed. He studied his list again, without lifting his eyes for a single moment. "...She's dead." He said. "My mother is actually dead. She has been for a while. But she told me not to tell anyone."

.

Finally he looked up at Teddy, chewing his bottom lip. "So…" He said, with a nervous sigh. "It'll be fine… nice, to have you around."

"Harry, what do you _mean?"_ Teddy demanded. "Your mum can't be dead!"

"Well, she is." Harry said, biting hard on his lip again and looking over at Teddy, with his dark eyes getting wider and wider, as if he couldn't look away now he'd started.

Teddy didn't know what to do.

He put down the jar of dried lizards he was holding and went back to the counter; and he hugged Harry as tightly as Harry had hugged him, when he'd burst into the shop, sobbing.

.

Harry burst into tears; although Harry always had been a bit of a cry-baby.

"When did she die, Harry?" Teddy asked, holding him tight.

"_When I was ten."_ Harry sobbed, pressing his face into Teddy's chest. "_She said not to tell anyone. They think she's just a recluse._"

Teddy gave a shameful laugh.

Harry held onto him regardless.

He held onto Teddy for such a long time that Teddy started to think about Andromeda's funeral again, and Harry's crying made his eyes get stingy and teary again, until they were rather rudely interrupted by a customer coughing pointedly at them; and then Teddy stood there, with nothing to do while Harry rushed to finish the order with the paper twists of red powder.

.

"...So all this money is yours?" Teddy asked, eying the open till thoughtfully. Harry gave him a twisted grin.

"Planning to rob me?" He asked, making Teddy laugh.

"No!" He said. "I'm just thinking. How much money do you make, Harry?"

"Not much." Harry said with a shrug. "There are other shops and mostly I'm at school, so it's closed."

"It's brilliant." Teddy assured him. "This is brilliant. Couldn't you do mail order, while you were at school?"

"I don't want anyone to realise my mum's not here." Harry explained, tucking his hair behind his ears, thoughtfully. "Not until I'm seventeen, or I'll be sent to live with my father's family, in Russia, Teddy..." He laughed abruptly at Teddy's alarm. "_Quite."_ He agreed. "So, it has to be like this. The Dolohov's are bad. My mum was terrified of them. She was only seventeen when she was married to my dad. She had to live with his family until he came over here to fight for Voldemort. She didn't know anything about the Apothecary; she had to learn it all from books..."

He gestured to a high shelf that ran around the very top of all four walls. It was tightly packed with foreign looking dusty books. "...And she had me, to think about, of course." Harry added. "When the news came that Voldemort was dead and my dad was going to Azkaban, she went into labour, on this floor." He gestured with his boot to the centre of the little room. "...Some old witch helped her have me and told her to call me Harry… And so she did."

.

"…Wow." Teddy said. "And you never thought to tell me _any of this_ in two years?"

"I didn't know how." Harry admitted. "I thought about telling you, a lot."  
"Are you glad I know now?" Teddy suggested, deciding it was all too interesting to guilt trip Harry with, currently. It was very hard to wind Harry up anyway, because he was always sorry anyway, and he got too sad, which took all the fun out of it.

.

"I think this is an excellent opportunity for us." Teddy concluded. "One you haven't been making the best of."

.

Because Harry was Harry, he didn't point out that it was not Teddy's opportunity to mess around with.

Because he was Teddy's very best friend, and deservedly so, he just grinned at Teddy, like his company was the best thing in the whole world.


	20. The Misunderstanding

It felt good to be a third year. A _third year! _Teddy felt very grown up. He looked rather grown up as well. One of the tallest boys in his year, and handsome enough for older girls to look at him with great interest; something he was impossibly smug about.

.

"_You can make yourself look however you like_!" Mark accused him, outraged. "You _look_ handsome because you _choose_ to look handsome."

"I don't see why you mind, when you're soo _pretty_ Mark!" Teddy said, laughing hard. "You're the prettiest girl I know!" Mark glared angrily at the ceiling for a while, before stalking ahead of them into the start of term feast.

.

Third year was already promising to be excellent. Teddy had been returned to his proper year, so he'd be sharing a room with Harry, Mark, Gabriel and Emannuel again. All his dorm mates from the year before were now starting their OWL's, but currently they were piled into Teddy's room, catching up after the holidays.

Teddy spent a lot of the first week having duels and magical competitions with his gang, winning and losing treats and goodies from home. After curfew, they all sneaked back down to the common room and played card-games with the fourth year girls. Teddy got himself his first girlfriend, who he kissed, actually kissed, on the lips. Her name was Tabby Abbot and she was lovely. After they had kissed, she went back to her dorm, with her friends. Teddy, triumphantly, went back to the fourth year boys dorm, to show off, trailing Gabriel and Mark with him.

.

It took more than a month of the very excellent third year, for Teddy to realise that he hadn't seen Harry for ages, and suddenly he missed him, rather a lot.

He found Harry sitting at the Ravenclaw table, and flung himself down beside him, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow.

"You can't sit 'ere, Teddy." A Ravenclaw girl, who obviously thought a lot of herself, said at once.

"That's weird, because I am already sitting here." Teddy pointed out.

"Zen, I veel report you!" The girl declared, throwing her nose in the air, and a mane of very silky blonde hair over her shoulders. She stalked off, towards the Ravenclaw prefect.

Teddy, abandoning Harry again, followed her, moulding his face into a comical parody of her long straight nose and slightly pointed chin, and swishing equally long silky blonde hair over his shoulders, to ponce after her.

.

"Teddy Lupin is sitting on our table!" The girl declared crossly. "Tell 'im to move!"

"Yez, tell 'eem! Zee little vermeen!" Teddy agreed, mimicking her distinctly foreign accent. The Prefect stared between the two faces in surprise, and burst out laughing.

The blond girl swung round, staring at the strange caricature of herself in obvious confusion before, with a screech of fury, she launched herself at him, attacking Teddy with talloned hands, while Teddy yelled and fended her off, trying not to choke on his own laughter.

.

"That's enough, Lupin." Mckinnon said, sharply, catching his shoulder.

"She attacked me, sir!" Teddy cried, trying to straighten his _actually_ torn shirt. "...Zee crazee French girl!"

"This is enough, Lupin." McKinnon said again, firmly. "Go to my room. Now."

This, rather strange comand, caused a lull in the chaos, which had now sucked in half the Ravenclaw table and most of Teddy's friends.

But, with a glance over at an equally bemused Harry and Mark, Teddy headed out of the hall, and down the long corridors to Professor McKinnon's room.

He waited in the corridor, not actually sure if the teacher had meant his _classroom_, rather than his actual rooms. But as McKinnon usually taught them in the open air, Teddy assumed that he must mean his actual room… Probably. But it wasn't nice waiting, while unsure if he was even waiting in the right place.

.

It seemed like a long time before McKinnon appeared, sweeping briskly down the corridor, the formal robes he only wore for dinner, swirling around his feet.

.

"Take a seat." He commanded, flicking the door open with a silent swish of his wand, and tossing the robes onto a hook. "...Well?" He turned on Teddy, who met his gaze, firmly.

"That crazy French girl attacked me." Teddy told him, calmly. "Ravenclaws are all a bit weird, sir. They actually think being intelligent is more important than being brave."

"I didn't ask for philosophy, Lupin." McKinnon warned him. "I was watching you. Why did you sit at the wrong table?" McKinnon scowling at Teddy, which made it hard to come up with a good answer. "Why did you think it was appropriate to create a cruel caricature of that girl?"

"She was being rude to me, Sir." Teddy said, as firmly as he could.

"It didn't look that way to me." McKinnon assured him. "Sit _down_, Lupin." He added, sharply, as Teddy tried to stand up. Teddy pressed his lips together and glared at him, his eyes changing to a glittering crimson.

"Well, it's hardly fair that you were watching me, before I did anything wrong!" He burst out finally.

"You were doing wrong." McKinnon snapped back.

"Well, clearly I wasn't when you started watching me!" Teddy pointed out, standing up again. "You were just watching me!"

"I am a teacher." McKinnon reminded him, angrily. "That is my job, Lupin! Ait down when I tell you to!"

"_I won't!"_ Teddy shouted, furiously. _"You're not sitting down! I'm not sitting down so you can stand there yell at me!"_

"_I,"_ McKinnon growled, voice lowered again, "_am not 'yelling'._" He held Teddy's shoulders and thrust him firmly down into the seat again.

"_Get off me!"_ Teddy screeched at him, angrily smacking the teachers hands away again. "You can't touch me! I'll tell my…! I'll tell my…!" He snarled, stumbling frantically over the last word, his eyes widening with a sudden panic, which McKinnon was slow to understand.

He loosed hold of Teddy's wrists abruptly, staring at him with a horrible mixture of understanding and pity, which made Teddy want to kill him. "_Don't touch me again!_" Teddy screamed at him, covering his face as his stupid eyes filled up with tears; _with tears!_

.

His hands fell away from his face, as the door exploded inwards, smashing into the stone wall with a resounding bang!

McKinnon had crouched slightly, so he wasn't looking down on him. He looking appalled.

And then they both swung round, as Ginny loomed over McKinnon's back, screaming invective and drawing her wand on him.

.

Teddy, liked to think he was an excellent duelest, but he had done nothing but watch in astonishment as his furious godmother had tried to hex his favourite teacher of all time.

.

It hadn't occurred to Teddy before this insanity suddenly happened, just how much McKinnon _was_ his favourite teacher. It was with good reason, as well. McKinnon always gave Teddy the best jobs; the care of any animals he was interested in, and top marks; and that wasn't even why Teddy liked him. Nor was it because McKinnon had known his dad.

Teddy liked McKinnon because he really was a good interesting teacher and most of all because McKinnon really listened to what Teddy said and he was interested in his thoughts and ideas.

Although Teddy's gang loved him and thought he was brilliant, no other adults ever really took the time to listen to him. _That,_ Teddy thought wearily, was why he liked McKinnon. And now he had got Ginny attacking him, and he didn't even really know how he'd managed it.

.

He'd known this was really bad when his godfather had shown up.

Harry looked like he'd fought off his kids and flown through a gale, yet his green eyes watched Teddy intently, while he faked a smile and they exchanged a weirdly formal greeting.

Together they left the hospital wing, where Teddy had been stuck alone for the last hour, and walked up to the headmistresses office.

Bizarrely the headmistress wasn't there, only little Professor Flitwick and Ginny.

"Would you want to sit down, Teddy?" Professor Flitwick asked him, in his high squeaky voice. Professor Flitwick wasn't sitting down, he was standing on a stool, as he always did when he was teaching. Ginny was sitting at the desk already but Harry was standing behind him. They all watched him, excessively closely.

"…I'm fine standing up." Teddy said, trying to sound like that wasn't a weird question. "...Where's Professor McKinnon?" He added, uneasily.

"Why were you in his room?" Ginny demanded, at once. Teddy looked at her for a moment. She looked, and sounded, like she wanted to kill him. Teddy swallowed, uneasily.

"Because I had done something not very bad." He said, glancing between the three pairs of eyes, fixed on him. "I had…" He ran a hand nervously though his hair. "I upset a girl." He said. "What's wrong? Where's Professor McGonergal?"

"The Headmistress is seriously ill." Flitwick squeaked at once. "She's been taken to Saint Mungo's."

"Oh." Teddy said. "And… Professor McKinnon?"

"What was he doing, Teddy?" Ginny demanded, failing badly to hide how furious she was. Teddy studied her, warily. He was not sure if Ginny wanted to murder him, his Care of Magical Creatures Professor, or both of them.

"As I just said. I upset a girl and Professor McKinnon was telling me off."

"It was Bill's Vicky." Ginny told her husband, as if Teddy wasn't there. "She said Teddy couldn't take her seat, he made fun of her. She lost her temper and attacked him. There was a scuffle."

"That doesn't sound like you were in the wrong to me, Teddy." Harry said, calmly. "Is that what happened?"

"Vicky told me in person." Ginny interrupted at once. "You have to tell the truth now, Teddy."

"Right." Teddy agreed. "The truth is that I was just..." He looked from one to the other again. "…I was just. ...I have no idea what you want me to tell you." He admitted. "Ginny went _crazy_ on Professor McKinnon. She was trying to hex him. He disarmed her and kept hold of her wand. She was hitting him."

"Teddy was screaming 'don't touch me'." Ginny said to Harry.

"Well he was trying to make me sit down," Teddy tried to explain, seeing that this must have sounded rather weird. "And I thought he was being a bit unfair on me. I was being a bit sensitive. I think... I argue too much." He actually knew he argued too much. He argued with Harry or Ginny, if he wanted to get their attention off their children, and arguing with his Granny was often the only way to get any emotional response from her.

"He was screaming," Ginny said, her voice shaking. "And crying. On his knees."

"No, I wasn't. I was just upset because… I'd upset myself." Teddy stammered, flushing with embarrassment. "My Grandmother died in the Summer, as you know. So I'm still pretty upset about it. _What am I doing here?_ I haven't done anything _that_ wrong. Not to have you here, Harry. Not to be in the Head Mistresses Office."

"He didn't do _anything_ wrong." Ginny said, angrily.

Teddy stared at her for a moment, slightly alarmed before looking at Professor Flitwick, for an explanation.

"If I didn't do anything wrong, can I go now, sir?" He asked politely.

"No, Teddy." Harry said. He put an arm around his shoulders.

Harry was not a touchy-feely sort of man, having been raised in a loveless home. Teddy was reasonably certain that Harry had never slid an arm around his shoulders, like this, before, in his entire life and it felt very weird and a bit creepy.

"Come and sit down, Teddy." Harry told him. "You can tell us why you were so upset."

"Would you like to speak to your Godmother alone?" Flitwick squeaked at him.

"No." Teddy said. "I just told you why I was upset. My Granny died in the summer. Professor McKinnon… I think he felt sorry for me."

"_Well you didn't sound like you liked what he was doing to you!"_ Ginny said, angrily.

"_Please stop shouting, Ginny."_ Harry snapped. "Teddy; we just want to know what's going on."

"I have no idea what's going on." Teddy assured him. "McKinnon pulled me up on something I'd done wrong. Then Ginny showed up and was crazy, screaming and trying to kill him. McKinnon disarmed her, and she attacked him like some crazy Muggle."

"He was screaming for help." Ginny said. "Begging Jarl not to touch him and sobbing."

"_Stop talking about me like I'm not here._" Teddy warned her. "Ask Professor McKinnon what happened! I was upset about my Granny. Ask him. He'll back me up."

"He'll 'back you up'?" Ginny demanded.

"Yes. He'll back me up." Teddy agreed, scowling at all of them.

"I want to see him." Harry decided, firmly. "I want to see him, _now_."

_You want to see him so much you had to say it twice_, Teddy thought.

But even he could find nothing funny in this situation.

Even though he hadn't stated to McKinnon _why_ he'd been upset, he was sure his professor had realised.

Teddy hadn't minded being an orphan so much when he'd had his Granny, Harry and Ginny. But now harry and Ginny had their own children and his Granny… was dead.

.

Mckinnon knocked before letting himself into the room. He looked reassuringly like his normal self. "Filius." He said, with a nod to the tiny man, before turning to look at Ginny, who was back on her feet, glaring at him. "Gineva," he added. "Mr Potter."

~o0o~

"…And then they sent me out." Teddy finished, with a sigh.

"I told Madame Potter that McKinnon had taken you to his room." Harry told Teddy, at once. "We didn't think you'd done anything wrong and we thought it was a weird thing to say."

"It was a weird thing to say." Gabriel-the-Silent reiterated, firmly.


End file.
